#ITS BEEN 54 MINUTES

[i-wanna-b-yours]

wow I'm having a meltdown over a guy

[l4long-winded]

o.s. the phone call regarding the onions

summary: richie won't stop calling and despite how busy carmen is, he picks up the phone. he didn't know richie would take so long to tell him about his trip to the farmer's market, let alone how impatient you would be in his lap (carmen berzatto x afab!reader)

reflection: i wrote this last night and edited it this afternoon. i find i have a hard time writing dialogue because i always want it to flow with my other descriptions. it's tricky for me, so this was an interesting challenge for myself. indulgent? yes. but intriguing nonetheless. as always, enjoy, and feedback is always appreciated!

warnings: cursing, kissing, phone call during sex, riding, religious allusions, more cursing, pussydrunk!carmen (the best kind), longwinded descriptions, slander of the elderly, cynicism, filth, secret girlfriend!reader, humorous dialogue, richie being richie, set before or during season 1 ig, double entendre ending, very slight dirty talk, overuse of the word "cousin" (please let me know if there are other warnings i need to add)

word count: 2,101

“Are you even listening to me, Cousin?” Richie’s voice irritates Carmen’s eardrum drastically more than it usually does, and that’s saying something considering how his tone and words always sift right under the flesh of Carmen’s forearms to scrape against his bones. He should really tell Richie to shut the fuck up, to get to the godforsaken point of this overdrawn story about his trip to the grocers, but Carmen can’t find the speech in him to do so. As a defensive and sharp individual, Carmen seldom runs into the issue of not being able to come back with a witty remark of his own speckled in a seasoning of honesty, but his brain’s already having difficulty concentrating on his shallow breathing. If he loses focus on that particular aspect, he would never hear the end of it. Richie’s too much of a pain in the ass to hang up on, in fact, he’s part of the reason Carmen’s in this predicament.

Richie just had to keep on calling over and over and over and over again. Carmen’s phone buzzed and buzzed and buzzed and the motherfucker on the other end would not take the fucking hint. Carmen recalls catching the flustered, frustrated, and deprived expression on your features as you looked at him, disappointment in your blown pupils because you knew you had to climb off his lap in the middle of your shared fun. Carmen assured you that it wouldn’t take long, to remain where you were because he couldn’t bear to depart from your heat for a single second in this state of mind, the state of nothingness possessed by desire. He’s confronted that compelling phenomenon too often with you and it’s absolutely everything for him. Richie’s call, Carmen surmised and explained to you during the fifth ring, would only take three minutes, five at the most.

Carmen forgets how bad at math he is until it smacks him upside the face and attempts to ruin his day. Richie’s been yapping on the line for about… how long has it been? Carmen stares up at the ceiling, phone pressed to his ear, pink lips parting as your tongue and teeth glissade down his neck. He can feel his body’s primal need to roll his eyes far into the back of his head, but he somehow sustains his half lidded gaze so he can raise his phone away from his ear to check the call’s duration.

14:53. 14:54. 14:55.

Seriously? Fifteen minutes of this bullshit? Carmen’s close to tossing his phone across the room so he can fuck you properly against his bedroom door, but he knows Richie. Richie would bolt on over here to tell Carmen his story in person, stomp away on Carmen’s remnants of alone time with you before he’s back to busting his ass in the kitchen. Carmen can’t have that. A fucking crowbar couldn’t pry you off his cock, and he’s sighing out shakily, pushing the mic away from his mouth far off to the side of the couch and into the cushion so he can release the tendril of fucked out noise you’re igniting in his stomach. Its smoke is climbing up and up, swirling around his lungs, collapsing into purrs and grunts of pleasure since he can’t be any louder than that. You haven’t made his mistake easy on him, fluttering your walls around him, arching as you rise and fall, adding in your lips and dutiful tongue into the sum of his impending eruption. He notices the twinkle atop the slim rings of your irises, how in awe and turned on you are from hearing those little noises he can’t will himself to wrangle down.

Do you like that?

He mouths.

Yes,

you nod your head.

For a moment, resolve slips. Carmen’s other hand maneuvers from gripping the throw pillow on his couch to gripping your thigh, sliding slightly down where he sits so he can roll his hips up into you. He revels in the gasp you inhale, your hands steadying yourself by the use of his shoulders. A ghost of a smile forms on his lips catching your pout and he’s about to inform you to behave when his phone speaks from under the cushion, still in Carmen’s other hand as he was trying to metaphorically and literally smother Richie, but the bastard’s gumption defeats Carmen’s efforts. He tightens his top and bottom lip together as he snatches the phone in agitation from under the cushion to lift it back to his ear.

“Carmy? Carmy? I’m fucking talking to you, Carmy,” Richie grits out, the bass in his voice scratching an unpleasant portion of Carmen’s ear. Carmen shuts his eyes, instructing himself soundlessly to breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth… the same mouth you kiss, your hands cupping his cheeks, tongue shyly petting his. He should put a stop to it. He’s powerless when you kiss him, it’s why he avoided doing so this entire phone call with Richie. He knew he couldn’t stop you, the hand once at your thigh palming up to your ass, his middle finger slipping under the fabric of your lacy panties that you still had on. It rests there, like it’s part of the ensemble (or lack of), twitching and clutching as the lace hugs him and tethers his digit to you.

“Hey, bozo, are you going to answer me or not?” Richie snarls, and Carmen almost tells him to fuck off, but you’re the one who takes mercy on him. Your mouth slides back down, lapping over a sensitive vein in his neck. Carmen finds himself falling back into the couch, licking his dry lips, a desire in him present to curse his friend out.

“I hear you, Richie, I fucking hear you,” Carmen blurts suddenly. He’s got a breathy rasp to him due to the sex, crimson in the face, yelling almost in the same fashion he does at work. You hide your amused grin under your hair as you tenderly kiss his jaw, picking up the speed of your hips. Before, your movements were gentle and small. But now, you have intention as you fuck yourself on Carmen’s cock, sucking spots on his skin to conceal your moans away. The worst part is that even though Carmen can barely hear them, he can feel the hum of each one vibrating against his flesh. And it feels like he knows you sound. How does someone begin to describe that? The walls of a cathedral must know exactly what he’s experiencing, angelic hums reverberating through their surfaces, etching sound waves into crevices and making them whole. That’s it. He feels whole. Complete. It’s almost as good as when he swallows those moans into his mouth and feels them alive in his throat.

“Yeah? Yeah? Then what the fuck did I say, huh?”

Shit… yeah, what the fuck did he say? Carmen’s horrid at multitasking outside his craft and he’s especially inept at maintaining his control and composure when he’s watching his secret girlfriend impale herself repeatedly on his throbbing length. He closes his eyes again to subtract sight’s distraction, middle finger sweeping back and forth so that your lace can rub his knuckle and jog along his memory. Oddly enough, it helps him collect the thoughts you’re so keen on dissipating with those gorgeous, enticing hips of yours.

“You said… you went to the farmer’s market,” Carmen begins, gulping heavily as you clench. “You went to… uh,” Carmen tilts his phone away from his mouth, biting hard on his index finger to refrain from hissing out. He glares at you, you’re being unfair, and the mischief is written all over your gaze despite the innocent smile you attempt to give him. He’s definitely going to pay this back. He’s not a saint, he holds grudges, and he’s harboring one against you for almost causing him to moan into his phone.

“Carmy,” Richie disrupts Carmen’s plans for vengeance and fortunately, Carmen instantly recalls what they were talking about like an epiphany, no thanks to you.

“You went to pick up the onions!” Carmen rushes, his syllables spilling over one another. He hates how he sounds. It’s different from his regular speaking voice and if they weren’t dealing with shitty cell service, Richie probably would’ve noticed.

“Then, what? I’ve been talking for almost twenty minutes,” oh, Carmen fucking knows, “and that’s all you’ve gotten from that?”

“Richie,” Carmen says as sternly as he can as your tightness sinks to his base. He sucks onto his upper row of teeth, pulsing increasing, lighting up with heat inside of your delectable walls. This is your fault, too. You and your enveloping warmth. You and your pretty face and your pretty cunt and your persistent needs, your pliant open legs as you ride him and make him drunk without a smidgen of alcohol around. He might as well have bathed himself in scotch, the effects most likely easier to handle than the vise you’ve got on his mind, body, and cock. “Did you, or did you not get the fucking onions?”

Richie scoffs, “Ugggghhhhhhh,” into Carmen’s ear. Annoyed by it, Carmen grips his phone tighter as he pushes it away from his head for as long as Richie does it. He shakes his hair out of his eyes as he retracts the phone back to its original position, his stare greedily finding where his cock disappears and reappears with more and more of that wonderful slick that glides him in deeper and deeper. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! The fucking old broad from the lot gave me that dirty ass look as she took all of the product right in front of me. What the fuck is some old chick with a bad hip going to do with sixteen onions, Carmy? She had her stumbling grandson with his little toddler hands dropping the motherfuckers on the floor right in front of me because he couldn’t carry them all. Like, are you kidding me? Are you cooking French Onion soup for the whole neighborhood? For the next winter?”

“Richie,” Carmen grinds out as you grind down on him. His teeth clatter as he scrapes them together. “Richie… Richie…” He can’t gain Richie’s attention back as he rants in Carmen’s ear, as you swivel your hips and whine at the stretch. Carmen’s holding himself back, painfully hard from the experience you’re condoning.

“Next time I see her, it’s on. Watch what fucking soup she can make when I buy the whole stock and flip her the bird,” Richie continues, the sound of a trunk being harshly slammed on the other end. But Carmen’s had enough. He can’t take it anymore. He feels feral, he’s going to burst any second and he refuses to do so with Richie still on the line.

“Cousin, Cousin, Cousin, Cousin,” Carmen parrots, rolling his eyes as he increases his volume with each repetition.

On the other side, Richie talks over him. “She’s driving some ugly ass Pontiac, no wonder she’s bitter.”

“Cousin, Cousin, listen to me.”

“Do you think they’ll notice me if I take a stab at one of her tires?”

“Richie!”

“Nah, you’re right, it looks like there’s a bunch of fucking narcs around here.”

“Motherfucker, stop talking,” Carmen spits and that’s when Richie shouts back, his own irritation building because that entire time, he could hear Carmen babbling on and on. Apparently no one knows how to listen to a fucking story anymore.

“What? What, Carmy?” Richie responds with a yell. He must be inside of his car because Carmen heard a crash right after. Carmen pinches the bridge of his nose having finally snaked his other hand away from your underwear.

“So, you’re telling me… you don’t have the onions?” Carmen asks.

Richie sighs. The reason he felt the need to orate what happened is because of Carmen’s temper regarding the restaurant. He had one task today and he failed it because of some greedy elderly woman. Though, he understands how Carmen’s busy. Through this phone call, Richie hasn’t been able to hold his Cousin’s focus for very long. He doesn’t think there was any interval longer than three minutes where he had it all to himself.

“No, I… I don’t ha—”

The line goes dead. Richie looks down at his phone, fully tempted to call Carmen one more time to explain himself and make his stubborn, mule-headed friend see his point of view for once. He only doesn’t because he swears Carmen sounded like he was about to explode.

[floreads]

baby blues • carmen berzatto x reader

pair: carmen berzatto x fem!reader

synopsis: sugar's childhood best friend throws her baby shower, and is reintroduced to carmy.

a/n: while researching the character ages for this piece i discovered that nothing really makes sense timeline wise for the siblings’ ages, so just for the sake of this fic i decided that carmy is 28, reader is 29, and sugar is 31 <3 also i did not proof read this lmao so sry for any mistakes !

warnings: anxiety/panic attack, lots of swearing lmao, mentions of hooking up but nothing explicit, lmk if i missed anything else <3

word count: 3.2k

"Okay - yo, be careful with the cake!" You run - or wobble, as quickly as your heels will let you - over to the dessert table, pulling your dress down as you go. Running the show in this outfit wasn’t the most comfortable, but you don’t have time to go home and change before the event is set to start. The venue staff wouldn’t let you come in any earlier than 1:00 PM to get everything ready, despite your numerous pleas. 

The two-tiered dessert wobbles slightly, as Richie and his colleague from the yet-unopened The Bear restaurant make the short but dangerous trek from the venue door to the row of long tables. 

"Relax, Y/N, we got it," Richie waves you away. "Marcus here is a professional." They place the cake slowly, but precisely, onto its display stand.  

"It's not him I'm worried about," you give him a playful squint. "Everything has to be perfect for Sugar. She deals with enough, having to see your ugly ol' mug every day." 

You turn away from him before he can fire back, and greet Marcus with a quick nod. "It's nice to finally meet you, Marcus. Beautiful work on the cake." 

He smiles back at you. "Of course, only the best for Sugar's baby."

That's all you wanted - the best for Sugar's baby. That's why you took it upon yourself to plan Sugar's baby shower. It's something you'd been planning basically your entire lives - ever since you two were old enough to steal your moms’ magazines during sleepovers. You two had planned your entire lives out together, and though the details have shifted over the years, there was one constant through it all: you’d always have each other.

Growing up, you and Sugar were virtually inseparable despite her being a few years older than you. Wherever one went, the other was soon to follow, like a shadow. You never really got along with your own parents, and as the only girl in her family, Natalie welcomed additional the feminine energy. Gone were the days of Mikey and Carmy ganging up on her when you were around. It was, and still is, you and Natalie against the world. 

You glance at your watch with an impatient sigh. 2:36 PM. You have less than half an hour before all of the guests arrive, and 54 minutes until Pete arrives with Sugar. You've been there for the last hour and a half getting everything ready for Sugar and her unborn baby, and yet there was one thing missing. Carmen Berzatto hasn't come with the food yet. 

"Does anyone know where the fuck Carmen is?" you ask, not to anyone in particular.

As if he was waiting for his cue, Carmy barrels through the door right then, breathing as if he’d just run the mile in gym class. Two women you have yet to meet, presumably from his restaurant that you’ve heard so much about, are right on his heels, helping him wheel in a cart full of food trays and serving utensils. 

“Fuckin’ finally. It’s nice of you to join us, Carmen.” You exaggeratedly throw your hands up, walking over to him. This was not the reunion you’d hoped for after not seeing Carmy in years, after what you’d dubbed the incident - one that not even Nat knows about. 

“Finally? We’re only,” he checks his watch, “ten minutes late.”

“Ten minutes?! Try an hour and ten minutes,” you scoff, looking at him incredulously. 

His eyes widen, and you are slightly taken aback by just how blue they are, though you don’t know how you could’ve forgotten. His face reddens and you aren’t sure if it’s because of the intensity of your gaze or his embarrassment at being late. Before you can think too much into it, he’s turning to look at Richie.

“What the fuck, Cousin, you told me she said 2:30.” 

Richie turns to you. “I thought that’s what you told me to say!”

The biggest sigh, possibly of all time, leaves your body and you cover your face. “No, Richie, I told you to tell him to be here by 1:30.” 

“You know, I seriously fuckin’ doubt you said that, but maybe next time you should just call him yourself.” Richie counters. 

“God fuckin’ forbid I accept help when you offer it! But don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson, ya fuckin’ jagoff,” your teenage accent comes out for a second, as always ends up happening when you argue with Richie. 

Carmy, who knows the way you and Richie fight all too well after witnessing it through your teenage years, steps in between you two. “Alright, alright, it doesn’t fuckin’ matter who said what anymore. What matters is we’re here now and I need to set up this food ASAP.” He turns, giving you his full attention. “Y/N, where can we put this food?” 

You send Richie one final glare before turning and leading Carmy to two long tables at the front of the room. “You’ve got these tables right over here. The venue gave us some food warmers, I’m sure you can figure out how to set those up better than I can. Be fast, Berzatto, we’ve got less than an hour before Sugar gets here and if anything is out of place, I’ll kick your fuckin’ ass.”

“Heard, Red.” He gives you a curt nod and moves to grab one of the trays of food before pausing so slightly that you know no one noticed - no one but you. He recovers quickly though, and it’s as if nothing happened. 

Your pause, however, is much more notable. No one has called you Red since Mikey died. Though the nickname was just the result of an unfortunate at home, box hair dye job at 15 (you were experimenting with your look - they can’t all be winners, okay?), it solidified you as an unofficial member of the Berzatto clan. 

“U-um, I guess I’ll just leave you to it then,” you stammer out, busying your hands with your phone to hide their trembles. As if she can feel your discomfort, the girl with the long braids tucked into a scarf walks forward, between you and Carmy, and offers you her hand to shake.

“I’m Sydney, by the way, Carmy’s CDC at The Bear,” she smiles. “And this is Tina, my sous,” she gestures to the smaller, but older woman next to her. 

You take her hand and introduce yourself, mentally berating yourself for not introducing yourself earlier. It’s not like you to be so rude - the stress of planning and executing a surprise baby shower for your best friend paired with the unnerving feeling of seeing Carmy for the first time since Natalie’s wedding must be getting to you. It may not be your place, but you’re still a little mad at him for skipping out on Mikey’s funeral and dropping contact with you altogether.

“I’m sorry! I swear, I’m usually not this all over the place. This whole thing’s got me goin’ a little crazy,” you gesture around the room. “Y’know, I’ve been meanin’ to get over to The Bear - it’s all Sugar’s been able to talk about lately. Besides the baby, of course. I was outta town for friends and family night - visiting my grandparents.” This was a lie - if Carmy was going to ignore you, then you were going to ignore him. Though, you know you’ll end up in the establishment one of these days now that Sugar is so involved. 

“Well, I’m sure Carmy and Natalie would love to have you in one of these days.” 

Your eyes flit to Carmen while you give Sydney a tightlipped smile and nod. You try not to let the awkwardness between you and Carmy show when your eyes meet. While you’d normally make some snide remark about how Carmy doesn’t have room for you in his life anymore, you remind yourself that today is about Sugar - not whatever problems you have with her younger brother. 

You take a deep breath and clap your hands together, wearing the kind of artificial smile that only the cheerleading protagonist of an early aughts teen drama would give. “Maybe someday!” 

Sydney and Tina exchange a look that you pretend not to notice.

“Well, I’ll just leave you guys to it then! The guests will be here any minute, so I’m gonna do one last walkthrough. Everything’s gotta be perfect,” you mumble the last part to yourself.

3:27

You’re chewing on your bottom lip, eyes bouncing between the venue’s big analog clock and the party’s guests, consisting of The Bear’s staff and the entire Berzatto clan (besides Donna - while Pete was in charge of the invites, you’d made sure that he didn’t invite her) when your phone vibrates in your hand.

Pete: The eagle is flying.

Your eyebrows furrow.

You: wtf are you talking about dude???

You: can u text me like a normal person rn, im about to have an anxiety attack

Pete: Me and Nat are outside!

You look up, eyes wide.

“Everyone, shut the fuck up! Hey, shut the fuck up! She’s here!” You shout, gesturing around wildly. It’s a little hard to get the attention of the loudest family of all time. Thankfully, Carmy sees you struggling and steps up to the front of the room with you.

“Yo! Sugar’s here!” His voice fills the venue, and everyone gets into place in front of the overflowing gifts table. “C’mon,” he motions you over to the front of the group with him. You can hear Sugar before you see her.

“Seriously Pete, where the fuck are you taking me? I’m way too pregnant to be blindfolded right now. Plus, there’s shit I gotta do at The Bear.”

“We’re almost there, relax,” Pete says with a clear smile in his voice as he opens the door and guides Sugar into the room.

The room erupts with an out of sync “Surprise!” and Sugar rips her blindfold off immediately, looking around the room in disbelief. 

She turns to Pete and hits him lightly on the chest, “What the fuck, Pete? Is this my fuckin’ baby shower?” 

He leans in to give her a kiss with his hand resting on her baby bump, and the moment is so sweet you have to look away. 

“Yeah, Nat. As much as I’d like to take the credit, Y/N was the mastermind here.” He gestures over to you and Sugar runs over to you, squealing.

The two of you hug as tightly as you can with the baby between you as she thanks you repeatedly. “I can’t believe you did all this!” You give her one last squeeze before letting her go.

“You know I’d do anything for you, Sugar. Plus, I gotta make sure baby Berzatto knows how much I love them already. I’m campaigning hard for that Godmother spot.”

“Psh,” she waves you off. “You already know you’re a shoo-in. Who else am I supposed to have as the Godparents for my first born if not you and Carmy?” She scoffs and moves on to greet her brother. 

The relief you feel as Sugar gets smothered with love by her family and friends is visible on your face as you make your way to the small bar and pour yourself a generous glass of wine. Now that Sugar was here and having a good time, your job micromanaging was done. You see Richie make his way over to you, pouring a drink of his own. 

“Ya did good, kid,” he gives you a pat on the back as he watches Sugar and Tiff animatedly talking. 

“Yeah, no thanks to your attempts at sabotage,” you joke. What was that with you tellin’ Carmy the wrong time?”

“I refuse to accept that, there’s no fuckin’ way I gave Carmy the wrong time. Anyway, if you two would just grow the fuck up and talk to each other-”

“Okay, don’t even fuckin’ go there, Richie,” you cut him off, shaking your head. “You know damn well I’ve tried to talk to him. If there’s anyone you should be lecturin’’ about this, it’s him, not me.” You pause to finish your drink. “Believe me, I’ve fuckin’ tried.” You pour yourself a new drink, smaller than the first. No matter how much you want to be drunk right now, you need to keep a clear head in case anything goes wrong. 

“I don’t know what that kid’s problem is,” he gestures to Carmy, slightly shaking his head. “It’s like tradition for the maid of honor and best man to hook up at a wedding. Who fuckin’ cares?”

Your eyes widen and you aggressively shush him. “Wha- keep your fuckin’ voice down, asshole! How the fuck do you even know about that?!” You whisper-scream at him, positioning yourself in front of him instead of beside him. 

“Chill out, Cousin, Carmy told Mikey, and Mikey told me,” he shrugged. 

“Mikey told you- so you’ve known this whole fuckin’ ti-” your sentence tapers off at the sight behind Richie. You can feel your heartbeat speed up and your hands begin to shake. “What the fuck is she doing here?” You march off towards the entrance, on a mission.

Richie’s eyebrows pinch together as you stomp away. “Who the fuck are you talkin’ about?” He turns, watching you approach the one party crasher that could ruin this day: the Berzatto family matriarch. “Fuckin’ Donna,” he mutters to himself.

Before you can reach Donna, she’s already shouting into the room. “Oh my God, look at this beautiful Berzatto family event. Oh - everyone’s here!” You can practically hear the incoming drama in the tone of her voice. “Too bad it seems like you motherfuckers forgot to invite me,” she laughs humorlessly. “It’s a good thing Jimmy let it slip to me that Sugar’s baby shower was today. It’s a grandmother’s right to attend her first grandbaby’s baby shower.”

You hold your hands out to her as if she was a wild animal, waiting to strike. “Listen, Donna, you cannot be here right now.” She grabs your arms.

“Oh, Little Red, you used to love coming over to my house. I fed you, housed you when your own parents didn’t want to. You’re so ungrateful… that’s probably where my kids get it from,” she stumbles closer to you, and you can smell the alcohol on her lips. Before you can reply, Carmy is stepping between you guys, taking her hands off of your arms.

“Hey, Ma, that’s enough. Don’t talk to her like that.” His voice is stern, but you can see the tremble in his hands. 

She grabs his face, gently. “Oh, Carmy. I don’t even know you anymore. When was the last time I saw you, huh? You never come to see me.” The tears are flowing freely on her face now. 

You glance behind you, looking at Sugar just in time to see Pete whisking her away to the kitchen, and out of Donna’s line of fire. At the same time, Richie is walking up to Donna. He puts his arm around her and leads her out the door. “C’mon, D, I’ll call you a cab. You should go home and go to sleep.” 

She pushes him off. “Y’know what? Fuck you Richie. Fuck all of you people, you don’t care about me at all. I’ll fuckin’ leave. None of you will miss me anyway.”

You take a step towards them, but Richie holds out a hand in protest. “I got this, Red, don’t worry about it.”

As Donna turns to the door with Richie hot on her heels, you gingerly place your hand on Carmy’s shoulder. “Hey, Carmy, come outside with me,” you slide your hand down his arm, take his hand, and lead the way towards the back door. He doesn’t look up, but follows you closely without saying a word. 

The stark winter air is refreshing, though you’re sure that you’ll regret the decision to come outside without a coat. You pull Carmy down to sit on the cool steps with you, and place your hands on either side of his face. You can feel him hyperventilating as your eyes meet his, his eyes wet with unshed tears. You resist the urge to look away. It’s been years since you’ve helped Carmen through a panic attack, and the memories are almost strong enough to cause your own tears. “Carmy, you have to breathe for me, okay? Here, try to match me.” You begin with the box breathing technique that you learned when you were teenagers. You take a deep breath in. One, two, three, four. Deep breath out. One, two, three, four.

In. One, two, three, four. 

Out. One, two, three, four. 

Carmy’s hands grip yours, hard, as he tries to match your breathing. “Just look at me, Carmy. It’s just you and me here, okay?” He nods and then closes his eyes, feeling the movement of your breath. 

You can’t tell whether it’s just a few moments, or ten minutes before you feel Carmy calm down, but he eventually opens his eyes and his grip on you loosens. You let go abruptly, as if his skin was a hot stove. 

“I- sorry. I’m sorry-” he starts, but you refuse to let him apologize for having a panic attack. 

“Don’t, Carmy. You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”

“I do, though-” he starts again, but you shake your head. 

“C’mon, Carm. I know we haven’t talked in a while, but you know better than to apologize to me for having a panic attack.”

“That’s not- I’m sorry I didn’t call you. I’m sorry I didn’t answer when you called, either. And I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you when Mikey died.” Oh. 

You can’t help but look away, smoothing away the nonexistent wrinkles in your dress. “Carmen…” you trail off, not knowing what to say. “Let’s just leave it in the past. I think we’ve both been through enough today, yeah? It’s not important anymore.” You give him a tightlipped smile and move to get up.

He lets out a frustrated sigh, grabbing your hand. “No, it is important. I was a jackass. To everyone, but especially to you. I don’t want you to think that you were just- that what we did wasn’t-” he breathes out, running his other hand through his disheveled curls. “You’re important to me, okay?” 

You give his hand one last squeeze before letting go and wrapping your arms around yourself. Whether it’s as an emotional shield or because of the cold, you don’t know, but this is all becoming too much for you. “I know, Carmy. It’s okay, really. We don’t have to talk about it. Actually, I would prefer it if we didn’t. It’s been years, we’ve both moved on. I heard about you and Claire, and I’m happy for you,” you give him a smile that doesn’t quite reach your eyes, and he can instantly tell it isn’t real. “Let’s just pretend none of it ever happened, and we can go back to who we were before. For Sugar’s sake, okay?” You give him a single nod, as if you were agreeing with yourself on his behalf, and go back inside before he can respond. 

He leans back on the step and pulls out a cigarette, before talking to the air: “Okay.”

dividers credit ! <3

[weaselandfriends]

Are ARGs the new avant garde?

There's this unfiction ARG on YouTube about a fake video game called Valle Verde. Here's episode 1, there are three episodes:

Watch this and the other two episodes. This is the most technically impressive thing I've seen on YouTube that was made by a single person, and if you watch this video for 54 seconds you'll start to see why.

Once you've watched Valle Verde, you can read this post.

ARGs, or alternate reality games, were a natural outgrowth of creepypasta (as the great Jenny Nicholson once put it, "campfire stories on a global scale"). With creepypasta, people, usually young people, would hop onto the internet and tell a spooky story about a haunted Sonic cartridge with realistic blood or a super evil serial killer who was never caught or Slenderman or something.

Due to the memetic nature of these stories, though, there became an arms race to make them on increasingly elaborate scales. Soon, people were ROMhacking their favorite old games to actually show the spooky haunted realistic blood. A famous example, Ben Drowned, showed modded/corrupted Majora's Mask footage that was generally effective because Majora's Mask is already sort of a creepy game.

Ben Drowned was also notable for being a story that was continually updated. Originally, most creepypasta would be a single story, usually short, posted once. This is an effective medium for horror, which loses effectiveness the more things get explained, but at the same time, when people like something, they want more.

Okay, so how do you make an ongoing horror series that doesn't outright explain everything, and thus retains its horror aspect? The answer, seemingly independently reached by a wide variety of indie horror creators at the same time (Ben Drowned, Marble Hornets, and the godfather Five Nights at Freddy's) was arcane hidden lore.

That's basically what separates an ARG from creepypasta: the "game" in "alternate reality game" is that sprinkled throughout a series of videos are scraps of hints toward a broader narrative, and the viewer is expected to locate those hints, piece them together, and figure out what's actually happening.

The logic is similar to the appeal of a mystery novel, so it's no wonder this took off. Channels like Game Theory posting lore breakdowns of FNAF or other popular series raked in beaucoup views. Indie horror devs would start putting dumbass lore hints in their goofball games to piggyback off FNAF's memetic success. Pathetic things like this happened:

But ARGs are fundamentally different from a mystery novel. In a mystery novel, the terms of the mystery are overtly made known. Someone has been murdered and a world famous detective has arrived to find out who did it/how they did it. By contrast, ARGs are often abstracted to the point that it is difficult to know whether there actually is a mystery. And besides, the mystery in an ARG isn't "who is the killer," it's "what is even the plot?"

Heavily abstracted, often fragmented storylines, with no clear plot, disjointed organization, and only scattered ambiguously meaningful moments that could be arranged in any number of ways to attempt coherence. What does this remind me of?

They reinvented postmodernism!

This realization came home when Skinamarink received a theatrical release in 2022. Skinamarink was an analog horror (another offshoot branch of creepypasta/ARGs) video blown up to cinema length, created by an analog horror YouTuber based on an original 20 minute video they made. Mainstream critics who saw this film, being completely unaware of what analog horror was, extolled the film for its Lynchian, Kubrickian influences. They were unaware its actual greatest influence was Mandela Catalogue. They were unaware that a thrillingly unique, abstract form of storytelling had organically been created by a group of outsider artists on the internet.

Kubrick would be proud.

I find this especially exciting in a mainstream pop cultural milieu that is trending toward, at least in my appraisal, increasing obviousness and simplicity in how it communicates ideas, which is not only boring but also annihilates the capacity for nuance, interpretation, and even meaning itself.

This also comes alongside ARG creators often pushing themselves to new technical extremes, extremes that are absurdly impressive for individuals. Kane Pixels has created amazing found footage videos using Blender-made labyrinths. The Mandela Catalogue guy was doing some crazy shit with puppets(?) last I checked. And, of course, the act of modding old games has evolved into the act of creating whole video games entirely as a vehicle for an ARG. The first example of this I know of is Petscop, and there have been others like Catastrophe Crow (which splices in an extremely accurate pastiche of a retro gaming video essayist, plus period-accurate game magazine articles), but Valle Verde takes it to a new level.

Since you've all seen Valle Verde by now, I won't waste time explaining the seriously impressive stuff it pulls off.

Instead, I'll let the other shoe drop.

I have a fundamental problem with all these ARGs, one that pains me all the more because I am so thrilled by so many aspects of them. The problem is that once you dig into them, once you piece together the underlying narrative from all the tiny clues, interpret the ambiguities, and see the broader picture -

The picture sort of sucks.

Ben Drowned, FNAF, Petscop, Catastrophe Crow boil down to the same residual dew: Children died. (Either murdered or just tragically.) Their spirits haunt the game cartridge/animatronics. All the scant hints point to the cause. (Ben Drowned spoils it in the title.) It's not only sort of banal but also the story that you could probably guess at without reading into the deep lore, just from the story's general vibe.

It's a fundamentally boring answer to a fascinating puzzle, and worse, it reveals that there was no true value in the puzzle being presented as it was. The abstraction and postmodern technique of the narrative contribute nothing to its overall meaning. They exist with the sole aim to obfuscate, because horror only works when unexplained. Rather than leave the horror unexplained, though, the way Kubrick would in The Shining (which deliberately strips out overt explanations that exist in the book it adapts), or Lynch would in anything, these works are attempting to have their cake and eat it: there's stupid lore that explains everything, but it's just a little hard to find. In that sense, rather than being a rejection of the current cultural milieu toward works that make simple sense, this trend seems more like an attempt to reinject that milieu into one of the few genres of storytelling that had effectively rejected it. (It reads similarly to all the Babadook-inspired indie horror films of the past decade where the monster is some transparent allegory for grief or trauma or something.)

So what's the story of Valle Verde?

I won't go into a Game Theory breakdown of every symbol and detail. As far as I can tell, this is what's going on:

Valle Verde, the fiction within the fiction, is a Japanese video game developed with experimental technology called THBrain that gives it a sophisticated and advanced artificial intelligence capable of making on-the-fly alterations to the game's script. Valle Verde, the series of videos, depicts an investigation into certain malfunctioning elements of the game prior to its release. The player character, self-identified as TEST05, is actually played by two "agents" (of what agency is unclear) named Pablo and Robert testing the game and chronicling anomalous behavior.

The series of glitches and other bizarre things they record seems to depict a theological battle between Valle Verde's freemasonic villagers, led by Foxxo (remember that the next elections), and the Catholic Church, led by Pietro (possibly an avatar for St. Peter, the first pope and guardian of the gates of heaven).

Joseph of Cupertino is the patron saint of aviation. It's a "time flies" pun.

It's unclear how much autonomy either of these factions have, even knowing that there is apparently a super-sophisticated AI capable of injecting novel information. Pietro at times breaks the fourth wall and addresses Pablo directly by name; the villagers don't break the fourth wall, but do all sorts of stuff that is described by the tapes as anomalous. The AI seems like the obvious culprit, but in Valle Verde 2, Pablo actually meets the AI, who claims to have sequestered themselves from the rest of the game because they didn't want to partake in the villagers' rituals, and who has even disabled all their language libraries except Spanish to avoid comprehending the screams of the children trapped inside the game.

Oh yeah. Children are dying.

The THBrain seems to not only enable incredible AI, but is a way to upload humans into the video game (maybe this is unrelated to THBrain? I'm fuzzy on that point). Several children have already been uploaded and are presumed dead; currently, an Argentinian child named Matias is trapped in the game. Matias is the only other character besides Pietro capable of breaking the fourth wall, due to being a real person; he is aware of Pablo as an "agent" and suggests at some sort of conspiracy outside the game, which has not been explicated in much detail in the available videos.

The reason the children are dying is eventually revealed: the freemasonic villagers are sacrificing them to their false god, Moloch.

I'm not kidding about the freemasonry. Note the Argentinian flag.

There are other plot elements that are a bit murkier; Valle Verde seems to be a nexus of several unrelated video games, which can be accessed through an in-game library, and it is within this nexus that Moloch lives, and perhaps where the underlying purpose behind the villagers' actions lurk. There is also a recurring motif of a coming Christian apocalypse, likened to Noah's flood. After the freemasonic sacrifice, a doomsday clock ticks closer to midnight. Are the masons unwittingly provoking God's wrath? The series is framed as footage from 1997 that was unearthed in the modern day, so was this apocalypse averted, or did the apocalypse simply exist within the game, with no bearing on reality? The series remains ongoing; future installments may clarify.

But the underlying issue remains that, for me at least, the basic conflict in its simplicity and lack of ambiguity seems inadequately matched to the unique, impressive, and open-ended presentation. It retroactively makes me wonder what the point is of telling the story the way Valle Verde is told, if its story is in essence the Church versus Satan-worshippers, with clear moral and ideological lines drawn. Doesn't a more conventional narrative make sense for this sort of story?

There's a scene early on when the player character traverses a series of rooms corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins. The sin of greed is depicted, not simply with stacks of gold, but with works of modern art:

As the player proceeds through the room, they discover a dumpster where Renaissance artwork by Titian and Michelangelo is trashed:

The message here is almost fatuous. It's also deeply ironic. Valle Verde is a work that has far more in common, in terms of its formalistic technique, with Picasso than Titian. Is it a lack of self-awareness that puts this here? Or perhaps something else?

The novel Infinite Jest ends abruptly, with none of its plot points resolved. In this way it's similar to the titan of American postmodern literature, Gravity's Rainbow, which peters out without explaining the conspiracy that has driven its narrative. Infinite Jest plays a trick, though, as devious as it is facile. The final 200 pages of the book have been cut off and moved to the front. The story's beginning is a flash forward that, in its lack of context and confusing abstractions, is difficult to make sense of on first read. Upon rereading after finishing the book, though, it clearly contains the answers to all the unresolved plot threads.

If postmodernism could be described as an artistic period of uncertainty and obscured truth that was a response to the similarly uncertain Cold War era, where the inner machinations of governments may at any time cause the annihilation of the entire world, then what Infinite Jest did, published just a few years after the Cold War's end, could be seen as a reclamation of truth.

Truth itself is a concept deeply interwoven with Christianity. In Valle Verde, Pietro even calls it out with a green highlight to indicate its importance:

La Verdad sounds suspiciously similar to Valle Verde. Coincidence?

The context of this quote comes after the villagers destroy the church; Pietro reassures the player that La Verdad remains unchanging, and that this tribulation shall pass.

Might Valle Verde itself then be an Infinite Jest style reclamation, using the formalistic techniques of postmodernism that are so useful for obscuring truth to obscure what is, at its core, a simple and morally black-and-white tale of Christianity versus wicked idolatry?

There is a real-world allegorical undercurrent to Valle Verde that makes this reading even more appealing. Valle Verde's creator, Alluvium, is Argentinian, and the game is steeped in references to Argentinian history and politics.

That's a map of the Falkland Islands and a picture of former Argentine dictator Juan Peron.

At one point, when the villagers destroy the church (with the unwitting? help of the player character, who seems to have no moral interest in anything happening, and who only does whatever anyone asks him, whether it's Pietro or Foxxo), a highly overt reference is made to the death of Pope John Paul I, who reigned for only 33 days in the late 1970s before he died, officially, of a heart attack. The abruptness of his death, and the failure of the corrupt, Mafia- and freemason-connected Vatican Bank in the years that followed, have led to conspiracy theories that John Paul was actually murdered by freemasons within the Vatican so that they may continue to corrupt the Catholic Church.

Specifically, the conspiracy posits the assassination was done by the freemasonic branch P2, or Propaganda Due, an illegal fascistic secret society that contained many high-ranking members of Italian politics (including Silvio Berlusconi), whose goal was to act as a shadow government that could prevent the rise of communism within Italy. (P2 definitely existed; how much it actually influenced Italian politics is a matter of debate.)

Though primarily an Italian organization, P2 had several influential members from other countries, notably Argentina, where several politicians and military leaders at the highest levels were involved. As a nation, Argentina is something of a tragedy; at one point considered a rising economic powerhouse, its excellent geographic and demographic advantages were squandered by a long succession of corrupt leaders, including those involved in P2. It makes sense, then, why an Argentinian creator like Alluvium might be so interested in critiquing the evils of freemasonic corruption.

Valle Verde satirizes Argentina's leadership via Foxxo, not only through his freemasonic devil rituals, but also in more down-to-earth ways. In his introduction, Foxxo provides the player character 100 coins, telling him to "remember that the next elections" (Foxxo's catchphrase, despite him clearly stating he has been given absolute authority over the area by The Smiling One); moments later, when the player turns to leave, Foxxo mugs him from behind and puts him 99,999 coins in debt.

Through the use of masonic slogans like liberté, égalité, fraternité (which is written over what appears to be a portal to Hell) and masonic symbols such as the Statue of Liberty and Washington Monument, there's an undercurrent that expands this freemasonic secular/Satanic conspiracy beyond Argentinian politics and into the post-Enlightenment secular governments that have come to rule the so-called free world. "Progress is God," the freemasons state during their child sacrifice ritual. (Foxxo is joined in this scene by the village's museum curator, representing knowledge, and its scientist, representing progress.)

It's this kind of framing that makes me wonder about the previous scene depicting Picasso paintings as emblematic of the sin of Greed, compared to Renaissance paintings in the dumpster; is there a general theme here raging against modernity in all its forms, compared to a fundamentally good and absolute Christian religious truth? If so, it makes sense why Valle Verde is presented as it is, so abstractly; it shows a world rendered incomprehensible by modernity, but one that can be sifted and parsed to find incontrovertible religious salvation still shining underneath.

It is a rejection of "progress," using the formal techniques of "progress." In a milieu where the promises of the Enlightenment seem to have hit a dead end, where the freedom secularism once promised has given rise to corruption and abuses akin to those the Catholic Church of the Renaissance once inflicted, perhaps the sense of going back appeals.

The English literary world post-Infinite Jest itself also seems to have returned to the past; the works published today are realistic in style and scope, eschewing most formal techniques pioneered across the preceding century. Though I doubt that was David Foster Wallace's goal, it's what he created. Valle Verde, which is so explicit in its fundamental belief in Christianity, is probably far more deliberate in its rejection of the world as it currently exists.

Though there have always been voices calling for a return to the past, perhaps this is a mindset particularly enticing in the information age, when meaning seems so fragmented as to be ungraspable. Though Valle Verde is conscious of what it is doing formally in a way that, say, Ben Drowned is not, the inner simplicity of these ARG narratives obfuscated by abstraction strikes me as a collective yearning for clearly explicated, graspable truths in a world where such a thing seems increasingly impossible. Almost a fantasy: If only this incomprehensible eldritch horror could be explained by a 10-minute Game Theory video!

(The eldritch itself is a horror rooted in incomprehensibility. Making it explicable banishes it entirely, the way the protagonist of Valle Verde banishes a demon by holding aloft a crucifix. La Verdad triumphs. Couldn't our lives be so simple?)

Not every ARG is like this. Kane Pixels, another creator I would highlight for their exceptional technical talent and avant garde storytelling, has created far more nuanced and ambiguous narratives with works like The Oldest View, which deals with themes of nostalgia and memory without being resolvable into a simple pat sentence synopsis. Overall, I consider this entire collection of web original horror creators to be blessed with both the talent and mindset to create truly innovative works of fiction, even if many of them are outsider artists fumbling around just trying to scare someone; as outsiders, these confused anti-confusions of theme and meaning might be par for the course.

Valle Verde is an impressive work of art, even if it is an avant garde work that paradoxically rejects itself. Perhaps in that paradox more could be said than had it remained fully self-consistent. Either way, I eagerly await what comes next.

[cheriladycl01]

Better than me - Charles Leclerc x Reader Part 2

Plot: You are a rookie in your first f1 season, adding to the ever-growing amount of Brits performing in the grid.

“Radio check” Dan says to you.

“Loud and clear” you voice back, you pull out of the pits behind Alex, pulling into the P11 grid spot.

“Immediately go for the attack when those lights go, try get past Alonso” you hear him again. You stay silent trying to quiet the worries going around your mind, just have it blank, only driving.

You wait and the minute those 5 red lights go out, you put you foot down.

"And we've had an amazing start for Audi in their first race at Sakhir, Albon has managed to overtake the Ferrari of Carlo Sainz and is now closing in on Perez, while his teammate Y/L/N a little further down the grid starting in P11 not only has she taken over Alonso in the Aston Martin but she's pulled past Piastri as he slows down into turn one. I have to say if she is amazing at one other thing, other than her driving its got to be her ability to learn from her mistakes quickly" the commentator says.

"Leclerc is still leading, you've got Norris ahead, 1.9second gap. You will catch him in Sector 2 if you keep at this speed" your engineer admits to you. You take that as a sign to speed up along the straight and go break later into turn four. In a breeze you pass the next three turns, your tires warming up from the motion.

"Your closing that gap with Norris, outside on the hairpin turn and push" your engineer advises.

"Y/L/N is closing that gap on Lando Norris and he can feel the pressure as she is chasing after him, relentlessly round turns 5,6 and 7. She's going for the outer overtake on the hairpin turn and does she get it? OH so close, Lando sped up at the last minute making her back off to avoid their wheels clipping. Her pace into faltering however and its inevitable she will catch him on the straight in Sector 2, if she goes into turn 10 the same we she annihilated turn 8" the commentator says, watching you from his box.

"Okay, you can overtake on the straight, then keep holding him off. Don't think about George for now"

"Copy that" you say, as you come out of the hairpin turn, Lando clipped the curb, his car spinning a little from the lack of control giving you the advantage to overtake on the outside of the turn and full throttle it down the straight in sector 2.

"Yellow flag, Verstappen and Alex have crashed, i repeat Yellow Flag Alex and Verstappen have crashed. Reports of debris along turn 14" Dan says.

"Are they both okay?" you ask, slowing your speed, seeing George ahead of you. You come up down the straight seeing the Red Bull and Audi spun off at turn 14.

"Hold"

"Both drivers are okay, looking at whose fault it was now. Yellow flag is down and Russel is 2 seconds ahead. You are currently P6"

After 29 laps, you needed to pit. Lando, Leclerc, Piastri and Alonso had already pitted so you came out behind Lando and Alonso. You were practically on his tail as you'd come out of the pits and managed to overtake him.

"Amazing you are currently P7"

"Thanks for the quick pit stop. Need to get these tires warm before i can catch Lando" you advise.

"Lando is currently P5, its George ahead of you now, 2 seconds"

"Copy" you say.

You pit once more, you had heard that there had been some tension up ahead with Leclerc and Hamilton, meaning Leclerc was now P2 and the Mercedes was now leading. You were now on laps 54 out of 57.

You closed in on George getting up to P6, however that didn't last for long as he re-overtook you, on turn 8. However again at turn 9, you made a risky move that ended up making you prevail.

"And what is this we are seeing here? Russell and Y/L/N are dancing around each other from the track. This is an amazing show of not only her level of driving as George has been here for 6 seasons now and is the more experienced driver, but it also shows how well the Audi is competing against cars like the Mercedes. What's this we are coming up to sector 3 and Y/N has just floored it on the straight! Can she catch up to Norris in the last two laps AND hold of Russell behind her. She created a significant gap between her and Russell but he's being told to push by his engineer"

Russell Radio Engineer: She's just ahead of you, 1.6 second gap and she's picking up the pace. You're going to have to pick it up George George: Yeah I'm trying mate but she's fucking quick.

"Oh, and up ahead Charles Leclerc has pulled up beside Hamilton and they are fighting for the pole position, both are on a podium but who will be in first place... AND ITS CHARLES LECLERC WINNER OF THE BAHRAIN GRAN PRIX 2026. Lewis Hamilton only points of a second behind him, comes in 2nd, and Sainz having snuck up on Perez in that 52nd lap and was able to take home a double podium finish for Ferrari. Perez in 4th, Lando Norris in 5th and an amazing start to her debut into F1 having started at P11 now in P6 we have Audi's only finish of today Y/N"

"Phenomenal driving today Y/N that P6 i repeat that's P6" Dan lets you know over the radio,

You pull up, jumping out the car and immediately are greeted by your team, you take the wheel out handing it to Dan before your team all pull you into a hug, jumping up and down with you. You can feel the camera crew with you filming the moment. You take your helmet of, going in for a single hug with Alex who has a proud look on his face.

"You've been asked to go to a post race panel!" Alex exclaims, he takes you over to your PR Manager Vesper, she tells you that where its your first time and it went so well, the questions shouldn't be derogatory.

You watch the podium, seeing Charles, Carlo and Hamilton all up there spraying each other with the champagne. It only then that you realize you'd just completed your first race with some of your idols. Tears well up in your eyes as you watch the three elated men muck around on the podium.

After you head to the conference room, and walked in with the three podium winners, Alex, Max, Lando and George.

"So our next question goes to Y/N" the interviewing from Sky Sports says and you look up pulling the mic closer to you.

"Well i just want to congratulate you and Audi on a great start to your season. But we did see some tears outside with the Podium were you not happy with your result?" he asks and you chuckle a little bit.

"Erm, ah god this is so embarrassing" you laugh, a slight grunt coming from the back of your throat.

"The team and I were both extremely happy with the result, P6 was more than we were hoping for. Erm and as for the tears, arghh how do i even start this" you say glancing to Charles and Lewis who were sat next to you looking at you with concern and worry in there eyes.

"Please don't look at me like that" you laugh looking down.

"Sorry, erm the reason for the tears was because for the first time i was looking up at some of my idols in the sport having been the one just racing with them. And that moment, that moment meant way more to me than the points I gained today" you admit a massive cheesy grin that rivaled Ricciardo's made its way onto your face.

The interviews finished up and you managed to get talking to the member afterwards.

"So, we are your... what was the word you used... idols?" Charles asks looking at you with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Mmmm not you. Lewis has been an idol of mine for as long as i can remember" you admit and he pulls you in for a hug.

"Well, not that you need them, but if you ever want any tips... you know where to find me" Lewis smiles. You all continue to talk for a little bit longer until it's just you and Charles left.

"You did really well today, I recon you might dare i say it be better than me" he admits making you laugh.

"No way. I'm no where near your level of driving" you admit.

"Mmmm no belle maybe not now, but your ahead of where i was in my rookie season" and he was right, your first race and you'd already got Audi, 8 points on the first race of the year.

"We are having a party tonight, would you like to come?" he asks you a smile coming into your face.

"Yeah, I'd love that!"

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

One of the issues that caused the delay in the hostage release yesterday was Hamas' violation of the agreement. Israel demanded that families will be released together, mothers with their kids, Hamas agreed. Yesterday, on just the second day of implementing the accord, Hamas violated this term, when the list only included a 13 years old girl named Hilla Rotem, but not her 54 years old mom, Ra'aya. This is tragic in itself, but it was compounded by the fact that Hilla is the only daughter of a single mom. Think about what it means to her, that she's being released, but not the only immediate family she has in the world. Israel insisted that Hamas must honor the agreement, but Hamas said the only way they'd stick to the agreement of not separating Hilla Rotem from her mom, is if the girl wouldn't be released. But seeing as the kids are considered the most vulnerable, Israel relented and accepted Hilla being released without her mom. Why is Hamas so insistent on separating the two, we can only guess.

So, for those keeping score, Hamas violated the agreement twice (potentially three time), first with firing rockets 15 minutes after the fighting was supposed to stop, then forcing families apart. The third issue is that Hamas promised the Red Cross would be allowed to meet the hostages remaining in captivity, but so far, that hasn't happened. If it stays that way, that's another violation. We're all waiting to see what will happen today, since on both previous days, the hostages release was delayed.

On its part, Hamas claimed Israel was the one breaking the agreement, even though there was independent confirmation that Israel met its obligations, such as the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza as part of the accord. Today, the aid trucks went in even earlier, and with video documentation, so that Hamas would not be able to use this as an excuse again. Another thing that Hamas claims is that Israel is supposed to release prisoners based on how long they've been in jail, but Israel said it was not a part of the signed agreement. Hamas gave a list of 14 hostages to be released, eventually it released 13 Israelis kidnapped. The agreement said Israel is to release 3 convicted terrorist per each release hostage, so Israel was set to release 42 prisoners. When it turned out that Hamas is only releaseing 13 people, Israel still released all 42 people who were already went through the process of release. No official explanation was offered, but my guess is to prevent any riots from those three who would not be released, and their families outside.

The other day, a ship flying Malta's flag was attacked by an armed suicide drone in the Indian ocean. It turns out that while being operated by another company, one of the owners of the ship is an Israeli businessman. To target the ship for its ownership rather than operators, implies the intel probably came from Iran. The ship was damaged in the attack, a fire broke out, but no one was hurt. There's an initial report of another ship, supposedly under Israeli ownership, that was kidnapped today near Yemen. If true, this is the third ship targeted for supposedly being Israeli.

A video was circulated the other day, which I will not be sharing, but you can see it here. It shows two Palestinians from Jenin, shot to death for supposedly collaborating with Israel, and then their bodies were hung, a crowd gathered and filmed this, then the bodies were taken down, dragged along the streets, abused, and eventually they were dumped in a garbage site. Are they really informants for Israel? I recently watched a documentary about Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' current leader in Gaza, who was imprisoned by Israel up until 2011. But it wasn't for killing Israelis, it was for murdering Palestinians for supposedly collaborating. An Israeli internal security official said that out of the dozens upon dozens of Palestinians that Sinwar killed with his own hands, maybe 2 or 3 were actual informants. Sinwar murdered these people to make a reputation for himself (he was nicknamed "The Butcher of Khan Younes"), and for an array of other, more personal reasons. So... I'd say most odds are these people had nothing to do with Israel, too.

As antisemitism is on the rise, and too many are adopting a narrative that justified or dismissed Hamas' crimes, the Prime Minister of Ireland did the sameon Twitter. He got community notes correcting his erasure of an Irish-Israeli 9 years old girl's kidnapping.

Just a reminder that when one terrorist in Dublin stabbed five people, three kids included, there were massive riots, with lots of public infrastructure burned down, and rioters arrested. What would Ireland do if they would have been subjected to a terrorist attack equivalent to the one Israel suffered on Oct 7?

The really tall guy is an Israeli officer whose name can't be published, only his initial Y.

He finished a specific military role two months before Hamas' massacre. On the day of Oct 7, he realized that the guy who replaced him, who lives further to the north, would not be able to make it to the fighting zone in time, so Y jumped into his car and drove there, without a weapon or a bulletproof vest. On the way, terrorists ambushed his car, and shot him in the stomach. Realizing he's beginning to pass out, he stopped his car at the side of the road. He woke up to the sight of the second guy in the pic, Mulogate Gazhai. He's a citizen of Eritrea seeking sanctuary in Israel. Mulogate was in a taxi, getting away from the fighting, when he saw the wounded Y's car. He asked the taxi driver to stop. When Y regained consciousness, Mulogate told him, "I'm with you all the way." He stayed by his side, putting pressure on Y's wound to stop him from bleeding out, for almost three hours, hiding together in a ditch on the side of the road, while terrorists keep driving through this area. Today, for having saved Y's life, Mulogate was granted an honorary Israeli citizenship.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[sirenjose]

Hunter Norton Backstory Trailer Analysis

As a rule, the sons of miners follow the occupation of their fathers. Once Norton’s father died, and his mother also likely dead by then too, he had no other choice but to become a miner if he wanted to survive. Especially with how poor they likely were, Norton’s father (and mother) likely left almost nothing for their son, forcing him to work hard to support himself from a young age.

Based on Norton’s comment about living like a “rat” for 20 years, as he is 28 in the present, Norton’s father potentially died when he was 8 (his mother potentially died before then), leaving him an orphan.

A Mine Regulation Act in 1872 prevented children under the age of 12 from working underground. Until then, he would likely have been kept to surface work, such as:

Sorting and transporting materials

Loading and unloading transports

Assisting with general maintenance and cleaning

Delivering messages

Etc…

An Educational Act in 1870, which applied to England and Wales, made schooling compulsory for boys between the ages of 5 and 10, while an Act in 1872 applying to Scotland made school compulsory for kids between 5 and 13.

Once he reached the age of 12, the Regulation Act in 1872 would continued to limit his work hours, which prevented boys between 12 and 16 from working more than 54 hours in 1 week or 10 hours in 1 day. It also required them to have 8 to 12 hour breaks between “periods of employment” (defined as starting when they leave the surface and ending when they return to the surface).

Once he was old enough, regular miners were expected to work at least 12 hour shifts (though this varied from mine to mine) on weekdays. And we know from Norton’s deduction 2 that he worked longer than any of his coworkers, while his 3rd letter states, as a habit, he enters the mines at least 30 minutes before the others.

Conditions in the mine were hot, musty, and cramped (as mine owners didn’t want to spend extra to make them bigger), increasing the chance of accidents. We can actually see just how narrow the tunnels usually were in the trailer.

Miners also worked in complete darkness except for lighting they had to buy themselves. In fact, they had to buy much of their own equipment.

Unfortunately, wages for miners were incredibly low back then. Miners were paid by the quality of what they produced rather than by the hour, giving owners plenty of ways to reduce how they could pay their miner (including by lying about the quality or rigging the scales).

The average wage of coal miners in the 1880s was somewhere between 3s (s = shillings) and 5s per day, with around 4s being closer to the normal, and 5 only if you were lucky. 4 shillings was about $1.20. Generally though wages varied greatly in different districts. After spending on equipment, food, and rent, they could be left with maybe no more than 1s.

Going back to the trailer, it says “Blasting Agent – Mercury (II) Fulminate”. This is an explosive compound made from mercury, nitric acid, and ethanol. It was commonly used as a primary explosive in percussion caps and detonators during the 19th century. When struck or subjected to a shock, it would rapidly decompose and produce a violent explosion. Its role was to initiate the ignition or detonation of the main explosive charge, such as dynamite.

This is the stuff that we see him pouring into the dynamite.

Continuing, we see Norton smiling at a coin, but then his wrist is crushed by the other miners, who steal it from him, taunting him to try to take it back.

Norton actually smiling at the coin helps show Norton’s desire to get out of poverty, an idea he emphasizes later when he describes poverty as a “curse”.

But as we see in the Famitsu Article, people didn’t understand why he tried so hard. It “intimidated” them. Then in Norton’s 2nd letter as well as in this trailer, we see that he was ridiculed by his coworkers. They didn’t think it was possible for him to achieve such a goal. This is reflected with how essentially, at that time “Englishmen recognized if he is in a certain social grade, he is likely to remain there. He’ll never reach a higher class, and didn’t rebel”. Each class “cheerfully” accepted “the lot which providence has assigned” to them.

Norton was different though. He says in the trailer “I once thought the same” after it talks about sons of miners became miners themselves.

He may have initially accepted the same thing everyone else did, but things likely changed over time, the longer he was forced to live this sort of life.

There’s also a good chance part of his change was from working with people like Benny. He learns from them to improve himself (and hopefully improve his chance at earning more), but he also sees how these old miners are, which emphasizes in his brain he doesn’t want to end up like them. He doesn’t want to end up in hospice or stuck in poverty his whole life like they did, just waiting for the day they die.

Norton worked hard, harder and longer than everyone else, in the hopes eventually this would be enough to improve his life, to make it even slightly close to what most would consider a comfortable life, even if it meant only the basics. But it wasn’t enough. The mine owners were greedy. The other miners were all in it only for themselves. His wages were miniscule, and his daily and weekly expenses pretty great. Especially with how back in that time period, mine owners had ways where they attempted to keep their employees indebted to them, to force them to keep working for them, as well as improve their own personal profits as much as possible.

Norton was surrounded by these sorts of people forced to live in such a cruel environment, watching the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is reflected in his 2nd letter where he says “This is simply unfair. The poor find it difficult to lead a comfortable life, while all the rich need to do is wave their banknotes around”. He describes all the pain he’s gone through just at the chance to “climb up” out of poverty before describing “how much effort I put into this” as “ridiculous”.

His hard work is exemplified by his 3rd deduction, which describes how he’s done so well his employers always attempt (but fail) to keep him for longer. He works to learn, to improve his skills, and better himself at the chance at earning more and thus potentially work his way out of poverty faster.

We can also see it during the trailer, with him surrounded by all these books and other things.

This quality of his, where he likes to teach himself, to learn, and to improve himself has been implied at other points by Netease, such as by several of his skins or even from part of other collabs, like B.Duck, which described Norton as “full of curiosity” and “likes learning”. It also described him with a “desire to act at MAX” or “highest level of execution”. This means he’s the type of person to put all his effort into whatever he does.

It just wasn’t enough.

We even see the sort of suffering this life has forced him to endure, as in the trailer it shows him coughing due to the damage his lungs have suffered due to his life as a miner.

Hard work wasn’t enough. This is why he eventually turned to the list of 13 mines he learned from Benny, seeking to instead attempt to escape poverty by finding gold.

As explained by @metalIurgy and @Deskdeas, each of the names on this list are European mines or people.

(Also, there seems to be 15 names total on the list, rather than 13)

Von Donnersmarck: House of Donnersmarck, prominent aristocratic family that originated in the region of Silesia. Owned mines.

Georg Wilhelm: Russian military officer and engineer who specialized in mining

Prince Konstantin: prince of Russia, killed in a mining shaft

Ștefan Procopiu: physicist who researched electricity and magnetism

Friedrich Alfred Krupp: German industrialist, developed Krupp steel manufacturer and arms manufacturing company

Saarbergwerke: mining company that operated in the Saarland region of Germany

Romeria: religious pilgrimage (Spain or spanish speaking countries?)

Petro-pavlivska (''Петро-павлівська''): black coal mine located in the Eastern part of Ukraine

Nova Baňa: silver and gold mining site in central Slovakia.

Swansea Copper: Welsh copper mines

Eramet: French multinational mining and metallurgical company

Ivan Polzunov: Russian engineer known for his contributions to steam engine technology

Wowdcole: ?

(Sorry, I can't read the 15th name crossed out in the top left corner of the list)

We know from Norton’s 5th deduction that he tried and failed to find anything at any of the other 12 mines, leaving him with only Golden Cave left.

Back to the trailer, we see him with a map.

The left side looks like it should be a map of Lakeside and the surrounding area, with Golden Cave being the X at the base of the mountains. Count Barriere is the owner of this land, and also the owner of Golden Cave. The right side should be the representation of a map of the mine itself.

Considering how earlier Norton’s coworkers stole Norton’s coin, it’s possible they essentially tried to do the same thing here. Saw him looking at the map, then took it for themselves. Like how Norton’s 8th deduction includes “you need more helpers”, they may have forced him to take them along, and why they explore it on their own without Norton. Especially with the looks on their faces in that scene not showing they had any good intentions.

(A lot of what I’ll say next is said very well by @Yaboku_samaa)

Norton seems to have set all this up in advance, before they came through the mine.

Next we see Norton’s inner conflict. A conflict between morals and vengeance represented by survivor Norton vs Hunter Norton. His Hunter side manages to win out by telling Norton that this is what they deserve, it’s revenge for all the pain and ridicule he’s been put through, all in silence, all without fighting back. He’s forced to keep a façade. To keep his true feelings hidden if he doesn’t want a penalty or reduction in wages. He’s tired of having to live such a hard life of constant suffering and humiliation and hopelessness, and thus why he had hit his limit and the side represented by his Hunter version won out.

(I’m not going to push the idea too much, but it’s possible Norton may have bipolar disorder. That or DID, especially with how he literally talks to himself in his 2nd letter. Especially as both can form in children or young adults who experience long-term physical or emotional distress or abuse. Causes can include childhood trauma (like neglect, abuse, trauma, losing someone like a parent), stressful life events, genetics, etc…)

This decision is shown during the trailer when Norton says “There are ways to make a change”.

Norton’s 2nd letter does an accurate job of summarizing everything:

“Over the last 20 years, I lived like a rat in the gutter. I spent days under the ground in the dark just so I could earn a minimal living. Scars from the blasts crawled all over my face like maggots. The constant scorn and ridicule... I endured it every time just so I'd get a chance to climb up the ladder. It's ridiculous how much effort I put into this—anyway, I've finally managed to crawl out from the rat hole. I no longer have to pick and pull on the disgusting ash. Those who did nothing but laugh at me deserve to stay underground and be stepped on like maggots forever.”

And the trailer visually showing Norton’s inner conflict matches up very well with how quite clearly Norton in his 2nd letter is arguing with himself. The side represented by Hunter Norton is likely the version talking right now, trying to convince him (the side represented by Survivor Norton) to kill the female, “think about how arrogant she is” and all the money he’d get. The fact he is trying to convince himself shows that Norton doesn’t want to do it, and how he isn’t willing to do anything for money. His hatred for his coworkers for their treatment of him for so long was enough for the side represented by Hunter Norton to convince him to trigger the explosion on them, but that motivation doesn’t exist here. Right now, his less moral side is trying to motivative him with money and thinking about others as “arrogant” and essentially mean, as well as the doubt that she could do something to him.

But that may not be enough to convince him next time to actually do it if he’s given a chance. At Golden Cave, that was his last chance to try to find gold. He’d gone through 12 other mines (and 20 years of pain on top of that) with nothing to show for it. Norton may be very stubborn and determined, but even he was growing so very desperate, which is shown well by Norton’s 5th deduction as well as by the trailer itself. So it makes sense that Norton was mentally not in the right place and vulnerable to the sort of temptation we see him going through in the trailer.

Norton is alone. No family. No money. Suffering from lung problems. Has never been shown kindness and forced to grow up in a very cruel environment. The only thing keeping him moving forward and losing all hope is by focusing on his goal of getting out of poverty and achieving some form of a comfortable life with at least the basic necessities. This is shown very well by Norton’s 4th birthday emote “Savings”, where Norton takes out a single gold coin and thinks about simple worn clothes and a loaf of bread, while the description reads “Endure it, Norton. You’re almost there”.

For years he attempted to push on, but little by little, his coworkers, his employers, his environment, it all chipped away at him until he felt he had no other choice. I believe the trailer does a good job of emphasizing how his main motivation wasn’t greed but desperation, hopelessness, and the pain he was subjected to by his coworkers and everyone. It’s life or death, and this mine is his last chance, and his deep misery that pushes him over the edge, so it’s no wonder he doesn’t care about anyone anymore. He’s always been alone, always had to be the one to look out for himself. No one else could be trusted. They would only take advantage of him or even potentially steal what little he had. Yet even still he hesitated to pull the trigger, which I think says a lot about Norton.

Despite the decision being made, he doesn’t run after he sets off the explosion. He accepts what happens. There’s no way he didn’t know what was going to happen, not with how long he’s worked as a miner, and how much he’s learned in his own time. It could be the side represented by his survivor version sees the scar as punishment for his deeds. It could be he knew if he wanted to get his revenge he had to deal with the potential scars.

But he was here not just for revenge, but for the chance at finding gold. Hunter Norton’s character backstory says the accident brought Norton “Golden Luck” or “a gold rush of fortune”, so it sounds like he did find something.

We do know he at least found the meteorite, which is what he made his magnet from, so this could be what is referred to in Hunter Norton’s backstory.

Along with the above, we could connect whatever his “golden luck” was with Memory’s comment during Time of Reunion, where she says “they seemed to be looking for something other than ore”.

This is repeated during AoM with a newspaper clipping about rumors being false of precious metal ore in the mine.

Considering Golden Cave’s rumor is “despite not a single piece of gold was ever found, Count Barriere still got what he wanted with this land”, these statements should be talking about the same thing.

It’s possible Barriere was after the meteorite, especially as the only things we know that came out of that mine after it collapsed were Norton and the chunks of the meteorite he carried.

There are potential parallels from Lily’s essence, which connects to Golden Cave, and her essence story says “The mine is filled with special phosphorescent ores, which brought wealth to their ancestors but also cursed them with phosphorescent illness”. Considering in the famitsu article it says the magnet aka the meteorite may have been affecting his brain, it’s possible the “phosphorescent ores” is meant to parallel the meteorite.

If that is what Barriere is after, maybe there’s a chance he reached out to Norton afterwards, and he could’ve been the one to offer Norton all that money in exchange for killing some female. Especially when we know Count Barriere has a lot of money based on Lily’s backstory, as he even offered her enough to survive for 2 years and even more via making her the owner of the IOU likely belonging to Orpheus for him buying Oletus Manor.

Anyways, we also know from Norton’s 3rd letter that he “dug his way out through a mountain creek a few dozen meters away from the mine” with only “minor burns”. We also know from the Famitsu Article that people didn’t talk to him, they said a bare minimum then kept a “wide berth”, and considering the very visible scar on his face, it is possible this was the reason they avoided him (they were frightened of him. Like we see at the end of the trailer, it is possible people saw him as a “monster”, especially back then when these sorts of things weren’t treated or seen as kindly as today).

[plotbunny-bundle]

Bruce having his morning coffee looking out the window: "Is that a fucking peacock?"

I made this with https://fakechatmaker.com and microsoft paint

attempt at an image description and more legible text under the cut.

Image description

[a fake screenshot of an unlabeled discord chat. The time marked at the top of the fake screenshot is 9:26 AM.

An image of a peacock standing on grass. A person without an icon labeled Me, implied to be Bruce Wayne comments “Apparently we have a peacock”. The time of this comment is labeled as 7:54 AM.

A person labeled Robin III with an icon of an overhead view of the Gotham skyline replies “oh you found it”

An icon of a black and yellow flashlight labeled The Signal replies “was that not normal fake rich people shit?” Then corrects himself to “stuff” with an Asterix.

Batgirl 3.0 who has an icon that is a block of purple replies “OMG did Damian steal it from Penguin or something?”

Me(Bruce Wayne): “language.”

The Signal: “sorry”

Nightwing whose icon is a comic panel of Nightwing eating popcorn comments “B I don’t think this is an appropriate place to be having this discussion.”

Me replies “My front yard is not an appropriate place for a peacock.”

Robin III comments “@Batgirl 3.0 He did. Exotic animal trafficking raid. About a week and a half ago.”

 Me asks “how long has that animal been in my house?”

Robin IV: “he is not an animal! He is a majestic peafowl who deserves more than to live life in a cage!”  Robin IV’s icon is the Robin symbol associated with Damian Wayne.

Red Hood whose icon is a brick wall comments “WHO IS BLOWING UP THE GROUP CHAT AT EIGHT IN THE FUCKING MORNING!” in all caps.

Me: “language.” Red Hood responds with an emoji of the middle finger.

Nightwing: “Guys let’s calm down. It’s just morning and we were all up late last night.”

The Signal: “I wasn’t.

Batgirl 2 whose icon is a yellow Bat symbol over a black background. Asks “cute what’s its name?”

Robin IV: “His name is Richard”.

Batgirl 3.0: “LMAO”

Nightwing: “excuse me!?”

Robin III replies with a crying laughing emoji.

Red Hood: “Ha that’s perfect. Hold on.”

Robin IV: “it isn’t an insult you imbeciles! The peafowl is a majestic animal that represents the beauty and grace of the flying Graysons!”

13 minutes later Red Hood replies by posting a black-and-white picture of Nightwing in his discowing costume.

The Signal replies with two crying laughing emojis.

 Batgirl 3.0 replies “what is that?”

Robin III:  “Nightwing’s first costume. It was Acrobat inspired. It’s not as bad as the mullet.”

Batgirl 3.0: “Oh I have to see that.”

 Robin III: “give me a moment. I’ll find a photo.”

Nightwing: “don’t dish out what you can’t take little brothers. B has footage of both your first weeks as Robin.”

Robin III: “which means he has footage of you to Dick”

Nightwing: “Caroline. Hill.”

Robin III: “you wouldn’t.”

Nightwing: “you have no idea what I do.”

Red Hood: “I change my mind. It is still worth getting woken up at ass a.m. for this.”

Robin III: “really? Look at your eighth grade textbooks in a while? I wonder if Rena is still around.”

Me (Bruce Wayne) : “enough. Tim Dick stop blackmailing your brothers. Damien you will find a rescue for Richard. We will not be keeping him. Everyone else next time you see a strange animal in the manner tell me or Alfred as soon as you can.”

Robin IV :“yes father.”

The Signal : “well that was an interesting way to start the day.” The time of last comment is 9:25 AM

End ID]

[girlactionfigure]

Leah Goldstein seemed like a natural fit to be the keynote speaker at an International Women’s Day event in Ontario, Canada, next month. A Canadian cyclist, she made history as the first woman to win a grueling 3,000-mile bike race across the United States.⁠ ⁠ But in January, five months after accepting the invitation, Goldstein was told she was no longer invited to speak.⁠ ⁠ The cause, the event organizers said, was “a small but growing and extremely vocal group” that took issue with Goldstein’s service three decades ago in the Israeli army.⁠ ⁠ “Our focus at INSPIRE has been and will always be to create safe spaces to honour, share, and celebrate the remarkable stories of women and non-binary individuals,” the women’s empowerment group said in a statement. “In recognition of the current situation and the sensitivity of the conflict in the Middle East, the Board of INSPIRE will be changing our keynote speaker.”⁠ ⁠ The revoked invitation comes amid widespread turmoil over the Israel-Hamas war, including in local communities far from the Middle East.⁠ ⁠ Goldstein, 54, was born in Vancouver to Israeli parents and lived in Israel as a child and served in its military, as is required for most citizens. She first broke onto the international sports scene as a kickboxer, winning the 1989 World Bantamweight Kickboxing Championship. As a cyclist, Goldstein overcame a potentially career-ending crash in 2005 and shifted to ultra-endurance racing.⁠ ⁠ In 2011, she won the women’s solo category in the Race Across America. She finished second in the women’s group and fifth overall in 2019, and in 2021 made history by winning the overall solo division. Goldstein completed the 3,000-mile race in 11 days, three hours and three minutes.⁠ ⁠ Goldstein told JTA that she had planned to stick with her usual message for the March 8 event.⁠ ⁠ “I am zero political when I speak,” she said by phone from her home in Vernon, British Columbia. “Honestly, there is nothing political about my presentation. I just talk about the crap that I went through and the crap that most women go through, and they still do, and how I handled it.”⁠ ⁠

jtanews

[cycle-hit]

kotoko's timeline based on moon phases

(in chronological order)

minute 1:00 in harrow, the first glimpse of a moon phase:

waning crescent, comes right before a new moon.

1:54 in harrow, the second glimpse of a moon phase:

still a waning crescent. the events we see in those 54 seconds happen within a week of each other!

3:01 in harrow, the third and final time we see a moon phase:

full moon! its been quite a bit since 1:54, where she beat up that guy in the alleyway and sat emo in front of her bulletin board of crime. between that point and 3:01 (her getting information and killing the kidnapper), it's likely been two weeks assuming the crescent we see at 1:54 is at the end of its phase.

0:56 in deep cover, the first glimpse of a moon phase:

waning crescent, again! you have a pattern, kotoko. its been 2 weeks since the ending of harrow/the beginning of deep cover, assuming more cycles of the moon havent passed. i assume she was probably busy with court proceedings in those two weeks.

1:41 in deep cover, the second glimpse of a moon phase:

still a waning crescent! at this point in time, kotoko has finished hunting down all the criminals on her bulletin board in at least a week since 0:56.

1:51 in deep cover, the third glimpse of a moon phase:

last/third quarter, right after the waning crescent at 1:41! (as stated above, its been a week) at this point in time kotoko is seen in the park + in the city with lucky.

2:28 in deep cover, the fourth and final glimpse of a moon phase:

full moon, once more from the top! this passage of time is the largest one so far. its been roughly at least three weeks between the point in time we see kotoko walk off from lucky in the city and whatever event is happening at the end of deep cover.

in total for harrow, all the events took place over the course of 3 weeks.

in total for deep cover, all the events including the 2 weeks between her mvs happen over the course of 6 weeks, or a month and two weeks. excluding the 2 weeks between her mvs, its been 4 weeks/a month.

in total for BOTH harrow and deep cover, the mvs in their entirety cover 9 entire weeks, or two months + a week.

of course, this is all assuming that the moon phases actually correlate to time passing and arent just symbolism, as well as assuming that no extra cycles have passed.

i can also give a very rough guess of the months- in harrow the sticky notes on her map mention that through the 7th to 31st of a month shes investigating what's presumably the warehouse. this rules out february, november and september for harrow. based on the fact theres also flower on the streets without them beginning to wither, its likely not autumn or winter as well. plus, there is one (1) green tree in harrow

that leaves us at summer or spring! personally for harrow my vote is that it takes place in spring just bc i think itd fit her "newly born" thing. yknow. the season of "new life". summer in harrow would also make a lot more sense though, especially since in deep cover you can argue that the trees here

are starting to take on yellowish or red hues, plus two trees there are barren! signaling that deep cover may take place in autumn. if we use this theory, it means "harrow" likely took place in the entirety of august. this would also fit for the two flowers here that i can identify-

pink roses and longiflorum hybrids lilies. pink roses bloom early-spring to late fall (meaning theyd still be blooming in the summer, which fits since there seems to be unbloomed parts of it if that isnt a tulip), while longiflorum hybrid lilies bloom mid to late summer. its entirely possible the tiny white flowers could go against this evidence by blooming in like. winter or something but i physically cant tell what those are.

so, harrow's in the entirety of august most likely, while deep cover spans september to october!

[mahoushojounightmares]

Teen Titans Masterpost And Reading Guide -

This is mostly a passion project of mine about my favourite team in DC Comics The Titans ! The general consensus I have seen on this website is that their history is confusing and people don’t know where to start so …. This guide includes ALL ( worthwhile ) pieces of Titans Media .

Ok so this is heavily inspired by @bitimdrake ‘s guide so check that one too !

Just to preface this is all my opinion and you can really start wherever you feel like it if you want to ! Sound Good 👍🏻 Good

TEEN TITANS

Ok so before you begin the og TT series you should read

- Brave and The Bold ( 1955) #54 and #60 if you want to read right from the start chronologically!

The Original Team of the TEEN TITANS was a series that ran through the 60s beginning in 1966 - 1973 and having a comeback in 1976 .

The OG series consisted mostly Robin Wonder Girl Kid Flash and Aqualad with many a cameo from other teens.

You can either read the OG Series but its completely optional it’s pretty outdated and silly but it’s a fun ride even then . In my opinion its best to leave for after you have been endeared to the characters .

If you really enjoy the Silver Age Teen Titans there’s also Showcase #59 before Roy joins and a story in the 80 page Flash Giant ! And after reading issue #20 you can also read #83 of Brave and The Bold.

After #31 theres TBANB #94 and after #34 theres World Finest Comics #205 ( read at your own discretion - totally optional)

Aswell as BANTB #102 and #149

And the utterly delightful Teen Titans lost annual & A story ( worlds oldest teenagers ) in the 80 page Flash giant.

All optional ( they get really weird)

Alternatively just read TEEN TITANS : YEAR ONE .

Some Issues I recommend from the OG Series

- #1 #2 #12 #53 ( last issue )

\ The series continues on from 1966-1976 \

NEW TEEN TITANS

NTT is arguably the seminal run and its best an absolute mustread . ( at it’s worst ….)

- DC PRESENTS #26 ( totally optional)

- THE NEW TEEN TITANS Vol.1

#1-40

- BEST OF DC #18 ( optional again.)

- Tales of The New Teen Titans ( miniseries #1-4 included in the NTT Omnis)

- read the 1st annual after issue #25

- By Issue 40 the series rebrands To TALES Of TEEN TITANS

This continues on from issues #41 to #58 it runs alongside NTT VOL.2 but is set 6 months before .

Read annual 3 as Part of Judas Contract !

- NEW TEEN TITANS VOL.2

#1-49

- TT Spotlight Miniseries !! ( SO GOOD SERIOUSLY)

- There’s also a drug awareness special at some point ( it’s its …. Certainly something)

NEW TITANS

By this point they remembered that “hey these guys aren’t teens anymore ” and thus renamed it to NEW TITANS . This series started off well enough and quickly devolved into arguably one of the worst runs EVER.

New Titans #81 is part of War Of The Gods and Annual 7 is part of Armageddon 2001 ( don’t bother ) annual 8 is part OF YET ANOTHER EVENT . Again don’t bother .

It’s pretty much highly recommend giving it up at #70 regardless .

-THE NEW TITANS

#50 - 100

ECTERA -

- running alongside NEW TITANS by 1992 was TEAM TITANS a series so awful I cannot recommend to you in clear conscience but if your a completetionist ( trust me I get it ) It’s there and Donna shows up alot !

- TITANS SELLOUT SPECIAL (1992)

NEW TITANS : MELTDOWN

The last decaying remains of NT walks on like a zombie on acid but by #100 all of the NTT crew is gone ( well most Mirage Donna as a Darkstar ect ) and leave to be replaced by an all new government sponsored Titans team lead by Roy .

- NEW TITANS

#0 / ZERO HOUR don’t worry about it/- 130

( IF YOU WANT CONTINUITY FOR KORI Showcase ‘94 #11 )

NT end’s with a whole 11 annuals

Ok so I am aware that they aren’t strictly Titans series BUT PLEASE TAKE a minute to read

The Arsenal Special!! Its a short single issue and BRILLIANT !! It informs a-lot of his character later on as well as of course the actual Arsenal Miniseries.

ALSO THE TEMPEST (1996) a absolute must read also informs basically everything about Garth and arguably his best story ever … just take a minute and read these if you want !! Before the Titans (1999)

TEEN TITANS (1996)

Ok so in the 90’s DC decided to start the TT from scratch ( huh see how long this’ll last )

This all new team was comprised of 4 half alien teens and a freshly deaged Atom. It didn’t last very long and while I am fond of it AGAIN you don’t HAVE TO read it

TEEN TITANS (1996)

#1-24

Also a few specials ! And 1 annual

Titans Beat #1

Impulse/Atom DoubleShot #1

Robin/Argent DoubleShot #1

Superboy/Risk DoubleShot #1

Supergirl/Prysm DoubleShot #1

New Year’s Evil : Dark Nemesis #1

JLA/TITANS : THE TECHNIS IMPERATIVE #1-3

Absolute MUST-READ . Literally one of my favourite comics of all time . Also essential because it kickstarts a certain run..

TITANS (1999)

One of If not the best run on Titans ( don’t @ me ) It slowly loses momentum after #26 but I still generally LOVED it . Stellar A++ Titans content !!

( you can also read the Beast Boy #1-4 miniseries prequel . But uh unless you really love Bette it’s not worth it )

TITANS (1999)

#1-50

Also TITANS Secret Files and Origins !!! ( ♥️♥️♥️ )

After #14 you can read Titans/Legion Of SuperHeroes : Universe Ablaze (2000) crossover as well as #1-4 - Silver Age Teen Titans (2000) #1

YOUNG JUSTICE

OK OK NOW IK THIS ISNT A TITANS OR TT RUN but this gen WILL eventually become TT 2003 ( 😒 ) and honestly ……

READ YJ 1998

It’s GREAT.

YJ/TITANS : GRADUATION DAY

Oh brother. Ok so I am pretty salty about this whole comic but it’s essential and has some good moments soo yeah read Graduation Day .

OUTSIDERS/TT SECRET FILES AND ORIGINS ♥️☝️ please read this after Graduation Day It’s heartbreaking and I love it !

TEEN TITANS 2003 - ( until OYL )

After the unfortunate events of graduation day the aforementioned YJ Gen ( - Anita and Greta 😞) and the OG NTT Crew ( Vic Kory Deaged Raven ) join to become …..

TEEN TITANS ( 2003)

( I have mixed opinions on this run some think it a masterpiece some think it awful I generally think it’s…. Fine ? Well “sigh” not fine but give it a go I guess ) I recommend #2-26

- #1-33

After #33 OYL hits

OUTSIDERS 2003 - ( until OYL )

Ok so this run isn’t really…. A titans run but it has fantastic Roy and Dick characterisation and KORY JOINS LATER AND SO TECHNICALLY-

#1-33

Read Annual 1 before #46

Don’t bother after #

POST - OYL TT 2003

Ok so I basically consider post OYL TT ‘03 to be a totally different team because… well it is . All of the NTT crew leave and are replaced by a handful of cameos and eventually like Rose Wilson and Kid Devil and because at this point half of the YJ gen is well…dead . It was pretty awful at this point though I find the character interactions endearing. This series remains like that until N52 .

They have crossovers with Red Robin aswell as Wonder Girl Vol.2

#33-100

OUTSIDERS/TT 2003 ECTERA

- DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES READ TERROR TITANS . Unless you really love Rose..( like me..)

- RETURN OF DONNA TROY ♥️♥️♥️ !!!! Excellent MUST READ !!!!

- TEEN TITANS : COLD CASE - seriously don’t read this if you don’t have too .

- TEEN TITANS : Spotlight on Wondergirl - awful . Seeing a pattern ?

THEN - TITANS EAST SPECIAL !!

DC SPECIAL CYBORG #1-6 ( optional)

TITANS (2008)

After all the bullshit THEY ARE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN YAY !!!! To bad there’s so much shit going on OUTSIDE of the Titans that ends up fucking over the characters. E.G Bruce dying so Dick has to go be Batman and …. Hell . Fucking Rise Of Arsenal. If you know what happens in that book well yk that Roy ends up relapsing and going down a much darker mindset .

Series swings between being really good and being a mischaracterising MESS.

TITANS ( 2008 )

#1-23

By Titans #12 the Deathtrap crossover starts it goes like this

TITANS #12

Vigilante #5

Teen Titans #70

TITANS #13

Vigilante #6

But Amanda why did you put it’s end at 23 when Ik for a fact that goes on for #38 issues ????

Oh boy .

Titans : Villains For Hire Special #1 before #24

TITANS ( 2008 ) : VILLAINS FOR HIRE

So at issue 23 DC had the genius idea of taking the Titans and …. Turning them into a mercenary and hitman group lead by Deathstroke himself ( why ? I wish I fucking knew.) Filled out with hitman and villains and …. Roy who was now really dark and #edgy . Whatever It was bad and a wannabe secret six .

#23-38

However they’re was almost light at the end of the tunnel …. Jericho ( Joey Wilson yes he IS ALIVE ) seemed to have plans to assemble a new TITANS team and reunite their family and Roy well it seemed he was on a path to redemption he was almost there close to moving to recovery and healing and he could do it with—

N52 . POST FLASHPOINT TITANS.

The N52 was bad isnt a particularly outrageous statement but IT WAS EXTREMELY fucking bad in relation to the Titans . Bluntly put None of it ever happened and the only titans ( TEEN TITANS ACTUALLY) that had ever existed were the TT2003 guys . Just them. Fab Five never existed. NTT never existed.And all of the other og TT guys were …… WALLY never existed. Donna was a one note villain Garth never existed Dick was …. There I guess.. ROY was a dumbed down alcoholic with no purpose other than to gawk at how cool and oh and ahh at Jason Todd . ( KORY …… truly just awful what happened to her )

You can read the TEEN TITANS N52 . I guess .

They have 2 series . Read at your own peril they’re better if you pretend that the characters aren’t supposed to be … like the characters that they are . ( scott lobbell shouldn’t of been allowed to touch a pen )

REBIRTH

- TITANS HUNT ! - WALLY IS BACK

-TITANS VOL.3 is exactly what I wanted in the first half and then falls on it’s ass and burns like a trash fire . recommend stopping at #20

TITANS VOL. 3

#1-40

Justice League : No Justice- happens around this time and it was trying to create a new status quo ( uh-huh DC AGAIN ..) soo

Teen Titans Special #1 before

TEEN TITANS VOL.3

( also as your reading this read #54-55 for context in TT #27 )

“Yeah sure put the 11 year old in charge ”

Do not read this comic . And if you do ? THAT IS NOT DAMIAN . The series starts with Damian leading alot of the OG NTT guys like Kory and Vic + Ace and then it later just becomes Damian + Emiko + Ace and a couple other guys like Crush .

Drowned Earth happens ( not important) but it happens at #28 . And they have a crossover with Deathstroke in

TEEN TITANS / DEATHSTROKE : Terminus Agenda ( it’s vol ) optional though

But

- TITANS : Burning Rage

Slots in at this point so !!

A more obscure pick but no half bad

- #1-7

- Titans Academy

Haven’t actually read this one . Art looks gorgeous though

AND …

It leads too

- TITANS United

And

- TITANS : BLOODPACT

I love both of these Bloodpact in particular and it gives me Dickkory back aswell !! Good story and stellar art !!

NIGHTWING #100 - 104 to explain what is going on in …

- TITANS BY TOM TAYLOR ( Ongoing )

Also BEAST WORLD I guess 🤷‍♀️

Mid at BEST . #1-4

- Tales Of The Titans

A miniseries but so far the best Titans content we have gotten IN A WHILE . ♥️ ( sorta )

#1-4

ECTERA -

- NTT GAMES !

Fantastic and stellar art an standalone (?) dubiously canon graphic novel by Marv Wolfman and George Perez !

- TITANS AND NTT CONVERGENCE

- worthwhile and exactly what’s on the tin ! Love these gave a happy ending to the Post Crisis universe !

- Teen Titans WORLDS FINEST

- wonderful art by Dan Mora . Story is fine

- DC PRESENTS THE UNCANNY X-MEN AND NTT CROSSOVER.

SOOOOO GOOODD

- TITANS : Paper Scissors Stone

Okok elseworlds Titans book but I remember liked it !

OTHER MEDIA -

- TEEN TITANS ( 2003 THE TV SHOW )

A solid adaptation of … most of the characters please don’t go into this show and come out expecting the same from the comics . Did a lot of good for Terra’s character and influences ALOT of public perception. Just … don’t be annoying about the comics after watching this .

- TEEN TITANS GO

YES IK IK BUT ITS AN ADAPTATION AS WELL DONT JUMP ME

- TITANS ( TV SHOW)

….I wouldn’t recommend this show too anyone EXCEPT Titans fans who want more content of the team it’s it’s an experience. ( FUCK YOU FOR DOING THAT TO DONNA )

SO YEAH . Feel free to question me if I have forgotten any I don’t have spectacular memory lol

Happy reading ! !

[tzuyuscloud]

19 minutes and 54 seconds - K.C.W x fem reader

Fluff ❄️

Chaewon was recording late in the studio tonight leaving you home by yourself for a few more hours or more. She told you she was recording a surprise song meaning she would be late when coming home most nights. And as much as you loved your generous girlfriend and her constant gifts, you just missed her cuddling against you throughout the night while she giggled at the television screen at whatever show she put on.

Missing her too much, you dialed her number deciding to FaceTime her.

“Baby its only been an hour” she lightly chuckled when answering the phone, her pretty face on display as her phone sat propped against something, you saw as she wore her headphones and her short bobbed hair fell in her face neatly.

“Yes but I miss you. Come home” you smiled cheekily knowing she wasn’t gonna give up with the song just yet.

Chaewon playfully rolled her eyes, “I’m not done with the 2nd verse, just let me finish it and then ill be home okay? So around 20-30 minutes okay?” she tried to negotiate but you just couldnt help but pout.

“But Chae~ how about 15 minutes?” you pleaded once again hoping she’d budge.

She then added, “20 minutes plus some ice cream?” and you couldn’t help but agree with the final answer.

“Deal.” you giggled.

“Alright now time is ticking, let me finish and ill see you in” Chaewon looked away to check the time, “19 minutes and 54 seconds.” she said.

“okay baby, i love you” She blew you a kiss before ending the call, and for the remaining 19 minutes you watched the clock like a kid counting down for the new year.

[usafphantom2]

50 years ago today.

On Sep. 1, 1974, Maj. James V. Sullivan and Maj. Noel Widdifield set a new world speed record from New York to London, as our friend Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) on her Facebook Page Habubrats. It took less than two hours.

This mission might’ve been the ‘gateway plan’ to have SR-71 stationed in England. The United States was fortunate to be able to house two SR-71s at RAF Mildenhall years later. This was a huge help to have SR-71 in Europe [SR-71 Reconnaissance Operations at RAF Mildenhall was from April 1976 to 1990. Prior to Det 4 being established, UK permission was required for each sortie flown. According to the SR-71 Blackbirds website, the SR-71’s stay would be no longer than 20 days for each visit.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced that Det 4 would be a permanent SR-71 Detachment with two aircraft assigned. The UK remained in control of the more sensitive missions. The two aircraft Detachments ceased operations on Nov. 22, 1989. The last aircraft departed the UK on Jan. 18, 1990.

The US Government has given the United Kingdom an SR-71 #962 for public display at Duxford Imperial War Museum for its contribution to ending the Cold War.]. Blackbirds based at Mildenhall could fly around the Baltic Sea and take pictures of potential targets in the Soviet Union using their side-looking cameras [without crossing the Soviet border].

On September 1, 1974 Major James V. Sullivan, 37 (pilot) and Noel F. Widdifield, 33 (reconnaissance systems officer) flashed across the starting line (radar gates in New York) at approximately 80,000 feet and speed in excess of 2,000 miles per hour. Exactly 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds later, they had set a new world speed record from New York to London England.

The average speed was 1,807 statute mph over the 3,461 statute mile course, slowing to refuel one time from a specially modified KC-135 refueling tanker. The aircraft was placed on static display at Farnborough Air Show for 1 week. It marked the first time the secret plane had been on public display outside of the United States. ”Kelly” Johnson, the aircraft designer, was on hand for the event. He remarked, “It (the SR-71) has exceeded all my expectations.”

Another historic speed record was set on the return trip to the United States. Captain Harold B. Adams, 31 (pilot), and Major William Machorek, 32 (reconnaissance systems operator), set a speed record from London to Los Angeles. They returned the Blackbird 5,447 statute miles in 3 hours 47 minutes and 39 seconds for an average speed of 1,435 miles per hour. The difference in the two speed records was due to refueling requirements and having to slow over major US cities.’

Even so a large number of people in Los Angeles reported broken windows due to the sonic boom. One of those people was actress, Zaza’s Gabor, who complained bitterly about her broken windows. To appease her Captain Adams and Major Machorek went to Zazas Home to apologize. They brought their wives with them. Zaza only allowed the SR-71 Crew to come into her home! The wives had to sit in the car. Very bad manners on the movie stars part.

The trip from New York to London 50 years ago became a beautiful friendship between allies, the United States and Great Britain .

We both worked hard to win the Cold War.

This article was originally in the aviationgeek club written by Linda Sheffield. published by Dario Leone

Artwork by Force Graham

@Habubrats71 via X

[moodymisty]

Mayhaps some Angron/fem reader with 7+12+54 from your kink list if you’re up for it? He seems like the kinda guy that would bite and definitely wouldn’t be gentle about anything in the slightest

[ 𝕸𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖞𝕸𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖞'𝖘 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙 | 𝕬𝖔3 ]

Authors’s Note: Suedo-continuation of this fic. Time to ride that massive Nucerian dick all the way to the pearly gates. Or at minimum to the infirmary. I've been beating my head on this for ages and it has dust on it, but enjoy.

Summary: Angron returns to Terra from a crusade, and finds himself wanting.

Relationships: Angron/Fem!Reader (reader from my StolenHistoritor!series)

Warnings: NSFW, Rough sex, Biting, That World Eaters dick hit different and by different I mean it rearranges your insides like a blender

Word Count: 1227

Lady of the World Eaters.

You don't like the title; But no one knows what else to call you. Simply put it was the only title that appealed to your current stature, even if it doesn't perfectly fit.

You aren't his beloved, you don't know if he can even utter such a word, but you know there is something here that he deems special. Perhaps there just isn't a word for it, in High or Low Gothic.

Angron’s Macgragge-born Historitor just doesn’t ring quite as well, either. Is a bit of a mouthful as well.

Angron's wing of the massive Imperial palace is its own world in an of itself. You could only assume that the other Primarchs have similar living quarters that are appropriately grandiose, though it's only speculation; You haven't seen them and probably will never will.

But you had just gotten out of a bath when Angron returned. The loose piece of clothing you put on simply to prevent from getting cold hit your mid thighs, shapeless and thin. It wicked up the water against your skin slowly, until you felt mostly dry.

The loud thud of boots on the stone floor had gave him away, but for a moment you had assumed it was simply the sound of patrolling Custodes; Until it continued closer and closer, and then stopped.

Angron entered, lacking the brushed and scratched bronze armor you're so used to him wearing. Instead he wore a more comfortable- at least you assume so- pair of trousers that tucked into thick, furred boots. He lacked any sort of top, as despite Terra being quite frigid currently, he had little care about it. If he's anything like his Astartes, his blood runs so hot it would take a chill beyond what Terra can produce to make him shiver.

You stood there frozen, half dressed and standing damp in the middle of a dim room. He looked down with an unreadable expression from his overwhelming height. It felt like minutes, but it was more than likely only a few moments.

But you'd never felt so small as you had then; Unable to know what he was thinking. It was always hard to, but even then it seemed like he was impossible to know where he was in his own head.

As while you've kissed him, and he's returned it, it's never gone much farther. You had assumed the Nails had taken it away; His ability to feel something as intrinsically human as desire.

But apparently, he still can.

“A-Angr-“

Your voice comes out in short gasps has he fucks you, fists clenched. It feels like he’s in your stomach, and he can only just bury himself to the hilt. You’d fear what would happen if he pushed it even farther. If he lost just a bit of restraint.

Perhaps it’s another part of the Nails’ torture. That the one person he's found that actually loves him he can’t even touch to the fullest, that they aren’t made for him and could crack under the slightest misuse.

He hasn’t said a word, other than sharp breaths and grunts, his hand on your hips bruising as he pulls you to him. You had been on your knees, but it was not long before your fell to your stomach and laid nearly flat on the massive ocean of a bed.

Your neck aches, you know he's broken skin and blood probably trickled down your neck, only now having relief that he can no longer reach it. The angle would be too severe, he stands too tall to be able to press his face into your neck while he fucks you.

It had felt good at the time, now it complains and aches, and you'll have marks serving as an easy reminder to you'll need to cover up.

Your hands grip the bed with your nails threatening to tear the fabric, intricate and expensive; Far beyond anything Angron is used to. You know he's refused most of Terra's more frivolous things. Perhaps that's yet another reason why his fellow primarchs have been so surprised by your existence, perhaps.

Your face feels hot, skin boiling as your stomach ties itself in knots, tight like it’s going to snap. You haven't looked towards him in awhile, you can see his shadow and feel his bare skin against your own, but for some reason you can't gather the will to look over your shoulder. Perhaps it's the embarrassment, as he brushes against nerves to deep inside of you that you gasp and squirm underneath him. His grip keeps you held firm however, as even though escape is the last thing on your mind, you'd never be able to do so anyways.

He is still be going to leave your battered and bruised for days, however. Even with his grip on your hip being so soft for his own strength. But his gentleness in context has left you trying to swallow moans instead of screams.

You attempt to keep most of the swears you utter under your breath as you cum, fingers tight around your one mouth as he simply continues to fuck you.

It’s so close to pain, but you’re used to teetering that knife’s edge with him. That how it feels at almost every moment you're around him. You barely notice it, anymore.

You can feel the moment he finishes inside you from the way he slows, and you hear his fist clench around the metal of the bedframe tight enough to crunch it. More restraint. He's always trying to keep the Nails held back.

You can also tell just how much; When he pulls out you can immediately feel it leak from you, slick against your thighs.

He pulls away, and you can still hear his sharp exhales through his nose. You don't know if it's because he's actually winded like yourself, with a racing heart and flushed skin, or that the Nails are biting at his mind again.

You roll, giving a soft groan in pain as you look up from underneath him.

You feel so small.

One of his hands reaches towards you and grips your jaw tilting it; You barely manage to hold in a wince as he observes your battered neck.

He’s silent. Angron is surprisingly so whenever you’re around. You always wonder what he’s thinking. He notices the bruising and droplets of blood on your neck, at minimum. That even the most gentle abused caused it. You hear him let out an exhale.

“You should go to the apothecary.” He’s blunt. You lay more comfortably in the bed underneath him, but you still feel pinned under his eyes. If he was someone else you'd think he was wanting you to leave, but from the way he's looking at you and keeping you caged, that seems to be the last thing he wants.

“It doesn’t hurt,” You say, and he hums. “I’ll wait till tomorrow.” The blood has stopped, anyhow. It'll be more painful to leave him and spend an hour there than it would be to just lay here. The entire time you've still felt his hand on your hip, skin warm. It drifts down slightly more towards your thigh.

He shifts and moves to once more press his mouth against your neck, but gives you little more than an accepted noise of understanding.

[humansofnewyork]

(50/54) “When I was eighty I was giving an interview on Persian television. I wanted to recite a verse, from the part of Shahnameh when Rostam selects Rakhsh as his horse. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not remember the line. For almost a minute I sat still. After that I stopped giving speeches. I’m at a new stage now. I’ve accepted this. It’s like an arrow that’s descending. It’s been a long flight. But it’s nearly reached its destination. I’ve done all I can. So now I try to think through the soul of our people. It’s in the hands of the young people now. They’re the ones with energy. They’re the ones that can change the regime. In the great battles of Shahnameh, as long as the flag is flying high, the army remains strong. The flag must stay raised. When the flag falls, the battle is lost. The flag of this regime is the hijab. For as long as I can remember. For my entire life, it’s the thing they’ve cared about most. It’s something that can be visualized. Something that can be seen from afar. No matter how low they sink, no matter how weak they are, it’s the one proof that they’re still in control. That they still control half of Iran. They’ve made it their flag. But their castle is surrounded. The flag is falling fast. And when it finally hits the ground, the regime will end. Mitra and I do whatever we can to support. We go to the protests. She wears her ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ hat. She doesn’t remember the exact dates, or the exact events. But she can feel it in the air. She knows something’s coming. She brought home two Mahsa Jina Amini T-shirts from one of the protests. She hung one in our living room, and the other in our bedroom. I can not fight it, her word is law. Lately she has become obsessed with the idea of going back to Iran. She thinks we’re going home. She’s always saying: Where are we going to live? Who are we going to see? It’s not a delusion. The hope is inside her. And is inside of me too. I still hope that I will live to see it. The new Iran. Just a glimpse would be enough for me. As Ferdowsi writes: ‘Even a few drops sipped at the end of evil, is worth more than all the years of life.” 

در هشتاد‌سالگی در رسانه‌ای فارسی‌زبان سخن می‌گفتم. می‌خواستم بِیتی از شاهنامه را بخوانم، زمانی که رستم رخش را برمی‌گزیند؛ نتوانستم آن بیت را به یاد آورم. نزدیک به یک دقیقه خاموش بودم. پس از آن، سخنرانی‌ و مصاحبه را کنار گذاشتم. اکنون در دوران تازه‌ای هستم. این را پذیرفته‌ام. مانند تیری‌ست که از کمان رها شده و در حال فرود آمدن است. پروازی درازآهنگ بوده و کمابیش به هدف رسیده است. آنچه را در توانم بوده انجام داده‌ام. در تلاشم تا با جان و روان مردم‌مان بیامیزم. اکنون همه چیز در دست جوانان است. نیرومندان دلیر. آنان می‌توانند رژیم را براندازند. در بزرگ‌ترین نبردهای شاهنامه، تا زمانی که درفش افراشته باشد، سپاه نیرومند و استوار می‌ماند. درفش باید برافراشته بماند. درفش بر زمین افتاده، نشان آشکار شکست است. درفش این رژیم حجاب است، تا یاد دارم چنین بوده است. تا بتوانند از آن نمی گذرند. دیدنی‌ست. نمادی‌ست که از دوردست پیداست. هر اندازه هم در حال غرق شدن باشند، هر اندازه هم ناتوان شده باشند، این نماد نمایش بودن آنهاست. می پندارند که نیمی از ایرانیان را زیر فرمان دارند. آن را درفش خود کرده‌اند. روز نبرد فرا رسیده است. کاخ‌شان محاصره شده‌ است. درفش با شتاب در حال افتادن است. هنگامی که سرانجام بر زمین افتد، رژیم نابود خواهد شد. من و میترا به تظاهرات می‌رویم. او همواره کلاه «زن، زندگی، آزادی»‌اش را بر سر ‌دارد. شاید تاریخ‌ها و مناسبت‌ها را دقیق به یاد نیاورد اما هوای دگرگونی را احساس می‌کند. دو پیراهن با چهره‌ی زیبای مهسا ژینا امینی را از تظاهراتی به خانه آورد. یکی را بر دیوار اتاق نشیمن آویخت و دیگری را بر دیوار اتاق‌مان. و من با او اختلافی ندارم زیرا که سخن او قانون است. تازگی حسی نیرومند برای برگشتن به خانه و میهن دارد. همواره می‌پرسد: “کجا زندگی خواهیم کرد؟ چه کسانی را خواهیم دید؟ به دیدن چه جاهایی خواهیم رفت؟” این خیال نیست؛ امید در درون او شعله‌ور شده است و همچنین در جان من. امیدوارم که تا آن روز زنده بمانیم. فردوسی می‌گوید: دَمی آب خوردن پسِ بدسَگال / به از عُمرِ هفتاد و هشتاد سال

[bridgeportbritt]

BridgeportBritt's Reading List - March

Okay as I mentioned yesterday, I've had this idea of posting what stories I'm reading. One to help keep me accountable because I really want to catch up on all my stories eventually (Currently caught up on 17/45 omg lol) and also to shine a light on other amazing storytellers. We'll see how this goes!

Recently Caught Up (In the last few weeks)

@the-lancasters (just finished this one!)

@warwickroyals (took me a minute to catch up but it's green!)

@nexility-sims (beautiful story!)

@cinamun (stay stressing me out but I'm caught up again!)

@trentonsimblr (thanks also to @ardeney-sims for making the collab easy to catch up on!)

@ladybugsimblr (caught up finally after I went back to posts I missed!)

@storiesbyjes2g (one of the few stories I try to keep up with daily but eventually end up spamming lol)

@trumpets0ng (a pace I can keep up with! lol)

@armoricaroyalty (just had a few posts to read up on)

@covingtons (just a few posts here as well!)

In Progress This Week

@rebouks - 13/54 pages of Somnium (So Good! Can't wait to catch up because I have so many comments to spam lol)

@xldkx 31/55 pages of Papercuts (These characters are keeping me hooked lol)

@digital-deluxe - Started Erudition and Public Enemies this week finally! I've been wanting to read this one for a while and I'm caught up on @atreanroyals!

What's Next

In Progress - @ellemant, @theroyalthornoliachronicles, @simgerale (So behind on all of these but I know I'm somewhere in the middle lol)

Not started - @shesthespinstersimmer, @aristocraticvision, @theroyalthrones, @renaldiroyals, @mysimsloveaffair, @sirianasims, @lynzishell, @madebysimblr (Excited to start all of these soon!)

This is not the full list of stories I'm reading, but the ones I've recently read or have up on my list next. For reference, I keep a spreadsheet and its color-coded green for caught up, yellow for in progress, and red for not started yet. Let's see how much progress you girl can make in a week, shall we?